With the rapid growth of the online community, social media websites are not only a means of communication these days. Users work, entertain, and share content via Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and many others. Social networks have billions of users all over the world, however, these websites are still very young.
LinkedIn and MySpace pioneered in the field of social networking. Both websites were launched in 2003. By the beginning of the new millennium, nearly 100 million people worldwide had an access to the internet, and this was the perfect time to engage in social activity online. LinkedIn was originally designed as a business-oriented social network. Today it is still used by recruiters and sales professionals. MySpace started as a file sharing online platform which further transformed into an original social network. It inspired the creation of Facebook and similar websites which appeared later.
For some people, social networks may look all the same. Nevertheless, each website serves different purposes. MySpace redefined itself as a social network for entertainment built around music, movies, TV, and celebrities. Facebook allowed their users to add friends, engage in online communities according to the interests, exchange posts, links, and multimedia. Twitter is more suitable for making brief posts, sharing links or short videos. Flickr and Instagram are designed especially for sharing personal photos.
Social media are a great prospect for doing business. Social media marketing is already a compulsory element of selling products around the world; large and small businesses use social networks to engage with clients and employees. Some social media became more popular than others, and the number of users registered there grows rapidly.