How would you say social media has evolved in the past fourteen years?

There has been a large shift from photos to video in the past 14 years, especially short-form video content such as Reels and TikToks.

I am nostalgic for the earlier days of Instagram when there were only photo posts that often had filters on them. It was such a fun and simple way to share a snapshot of your life, whether that was a photo of you and your friends, a pretty landscape view, or food.

Social media, in general, has become so focused on metrics since its inception… not so much genuine connection, no matter what they say!

Honestly, I miss MySpace and all of those heart-stopping notifications about new friend requests - or new comments and wall posts - and when you were there simply to “creep” on others and connect… while also trying to decide which song you wanted to live on your profile. Those were much simpler days!

Over the last 14 years, I have transitioned from a casual social media user to a professional social media manager. In this time, I have witnessed the evolution of social media into a platform for fostering meaningful connections between brands and their consumers. It is remarkable to see how companies now regard social media as a critical marketing tool to drive sales and increase conversions. If someone had told me this was happening in 2010, I wouldn’t have believed them. 

The trend I think I miss most is using the in app filters for Instagram. It made for such a causal fun experience that we don’t see as much of anymore. Also Vine I miss Vine. 

Woah, where to even begin … social media has changed so drastically since 2010. Two things that stand out the most for me are the rise in artificial intelligence (AI) - for good or bad - and the concept of brands creating communities and relationships with customers, versus constant promotion and talking at their audiences. Social media, even for brands, has become an arena for authenticity and honest sharing of opinions, including micro-influencing. I’m here for all of this.

As for AI, I use it every day to help assist me with prompts and create quirky, fun and engaging captions for my clients’ audiences on social media. At the foundation, it’s all about the details you put into your prompts for platforms like ChatGPT - if you put crap in, you’ll get crap out, so I have to be very detailed in my prompts. I generally expand on the brand tone, voice and audience to help the platform create even more tailored content. It’s helped me streamline my daily work processes so much! #ForeverGrateful

As for what I miss, I miss the early days of MySpace, which is really dating me. But the hours I’d spend customizing my profile with Hello Kitty glittery graphics and bold fonts was ~epic.~ I also miss being able to add a playlist to your profile that would automatically play when a friend visited - so fun and personal!

What a great question! I have had a Facebook since 2004 (remember having to have the @edu to be able to sign in?!) and I miss the days when you used your digital point and shoot camera to upload all those photos with friends from the college party. No filters required. I remember Myspace and the Top 8 that always ensued in some drama amongst friends. A guy broke up with me without telling me but moved me down on his Top 8 from #2 to #7 LOL. I remember when Instagram came out and those borders around the photos were all the rage!! I am totally aging myself 🤣.

I think social media has transformed over the years in so many ways. I think follower count was such a big deal pre pandemic and then post pandemic it really became about the engagement rate and having a quality, engaging audience over quantity. Vine and others that are RIP we remember and even Snapchat isn’t what it used to be. I remember also when IG dropped stories and Meta was clearly copying Snap IMHO. I think for businesses FB and IG Ads have increased in success for businesses and for B2B LinkedIn ads seem to crush it. What did we do before programs like Canva and Sprout Social?! I have been working as a Social Media Manager since 2012 and wow how I have seen and embraced and even really disliked many of the changes, but with social media, you always have to be on your toes!! 

I think it is interesting that social media started out incredibly organic and authentic with people sharing anything and everything in the early days (here’s to you, Facebook photo albums with 100+ photos from the previous night where each friend was meticulously tagged) to being extremely curated and perfected in the 2010’s with colorgraded, themed Instagram feeds and Pinterest boards to the pendulum swinging back to that authenticity factor being the most important thing in recent years with the help of the pandemic and TikTok. 

Agree with some others above - love that the focus is now on engagement rather than followers. It makes us all better creators and SMMs.

As I mentioned with the Facebook photo albums, I think that is the time I’m most nostalgic for. Also, back then, every Facebook status (it wasn’t even called a “post” then!) started with “YOUR NAME is ________.” I couldn’t believe it when they removed the “is”! 

It's interesting – as I gathered my thoughts here, the more I realized how similar social media is at it’s core, but the experience feels totally different!

The biggest shift I've noticed is the move to short-form content. Throwback to heavy YouTube videos and those long Tumblr posts that felt like journal entries. There's a certain charm to long-form content, a sense of artistry in crafting a story. I miss the effort and depth that went into it.

Don't get me wrong though, short-form content can be quite challenging and requires plenty of strategy!

I think it was a kinder, gentler environment back then, not by a race to become influencers. The excitement to connect with friends—and, more impressively, strangers who then became cyber friends—prevailed. It wasn’t all about ads. There was less cynicism, nobody warned about false and misinformation, and trolls were few, if any. Amateur photos and a sincere, often goofy caption were enough. Today, the platforms demand an ever-changing and increasing level of professionalism and sophistication that is exhausting and debilitating to keep up with. 

I am nostalgic for the early 2010s Facebook experience. Facebook was fun for me both professionally and personally. 

Personally, I could like the pages I wanted to see on my feed and keep up with them just from scrolling. My favorite restaurants would offer specials, non-profits would announce events and local stores would post new arrivals - and I would see them. I didn’t have to go to their pages individually to see what was new. It made me a better member of my community, and I was able to shop locally with ease. Additionally, I could see photos of my friends and neighbors having fun and we could share a laugh together.

Professionally, I could post fun and engaging content and interact with my community. I could boost posts right from my phone if I had a message I really needed or wanted to share. It was an amazing marketing tool, and was more effective at branding than any other channel I have used in my 25-year marketing career. 

Everything changed in 2015/2016 with the U.S. political season. Facebook became a nasty place where I didn’t want to engage personally and dreaded engaging professionally. Then in 2019 Facebook made more changes and it was no longer a place where you could count on paying to play. We had to switch gears to groups, and then even groups didn’t work well for us. 

Wouldn’t everyone be happier if we could go back to 2010-2014 Facebook? Maybe everyone except Meta shareholders? Maybe even they would be happier. I say we give it a try. 

Ah… 2010. social media was less commercialized than it is today and those of us that were using it organically for marketing made an impact. I can remember seeing a tweet, running down the hall to my CEO’s office to ask if he had time to reply personally (as him vs. the brand), pow-wowing on how best to reply, running back to my desk and forwarding him the link to that tweet. And then we’d blow that person’s mind with speed of reply and personalized response from a CEO. I also loved LinkedIn Answers and brought revenue into the company simply by listening and reaching out. Colleagues were blown away by social’s ability to shorten the sales cycle. Feeds were more chronological back then too, so there was a lot less ‘playing to the algorithm’ strategies. I used Facebook and Twitter a lot more back then than I do today, where I prefer LinkedIn and Instagram.