From Myspace to TikTok, we break down the evolution of social media and answer the burning question on every artist’s lips – do I have to use every platform? It’s overwhelming, but we’re here to help!
At the risk of showing our age here in the hive, who remembers the Myspace revolution?
Myspace gave us a space to have a personality online; not only could you have a profile pic wearing your favourite band shirt, but you could add a song to your profile and update the HTML to make sure people really knew we were an actual, for real, die hard fan of The Used. There was even a space to host your top 8 friends, which caused much controversy on Monday morning at school if you switched the order around according to who you hung out with on the weekend. Heaven forbid you put your latest crush above your BFF!
Eventually, Facebook and Tumblr appeared and shook things up. If Myspace was the kid at the family party using all the latest ‘lingo’ that the parents didn’t understand, Tumblr was the slightly older, sophisticated cousin who still managed to stay cool and Facebook was Uncle Mark who was fun, but tried a little too hard to have ‘hip’ convos with the kids.
Eventually we realised that Uncle Mark was still fun to hang out with; when Myspace faded, Facebook took over in a big way. Facebook quickly became a way to connect with friends and family far and wide, no matter your age. Eventually, businesses were able to create their own pages and Facebook turned itself into a business model with its own very effective SEO tool, taking digital marketing to an entirely new level. Gone were the days of sending photos in the mail or attaching them into an email to Aunty Beverly overseas – we could just put them on her Facebook wall.
Facebook statuses and the need to share our personal thoughts in a few very public sentences became a key part of everyone’s day. Cue the little blue bird of Twitter, which gave people an avenue to talk about their feelings in a 150 character limit, which let’s be honest should probably also apply to Facebook.
The love of sharing and interacting with videos and photos on Facebook saw the birth of Instagram – a perfect way to share snaps with neat in-app filtering options. Then in waltzed Snapchat, an edgier version of Instagram that allowed you to post something that disappeared after 24 hours and send photos and videos that vanished after 10 seconds with an alert if someone took a screenshot. Snapchat became the edgy cousin at the family party who wasn’t scared to be a little risqué.
By this stage there’s a whole lot happening at the family party! Let’s break this down – Myspace revolutionised social networking, Tumblr introduced the trend of blogging, Facebook took it to entirely new level and build a marketing platform, Instagram took the best bits of Facebook, Twitter became an avenue for people to word vomit online, Snapchat created a room for the naughty kids to play in, Instagram created the Stories feature as a way to rival Snapchat, Facebook bought Instagram because it had everything it needed and incorporated Stories into its platform, and then Instagram launched IGTV as a way of rivalling YouTube. Meanwhile, YouTube took Tumbler’s blogging and raised one with Vlogging. That’s it, we’ve got everything we need! How can it possibly go to a new level?
In marches TikTok – outfit on fleek, bussin’ hair and everyone’s jaw drops. We’ve got comedians, musicians, TV personalities and worryingly, an even younger demographic than Instagram all hangin’ out in the same room sharing the lols and taking video creativity to a whole new level. Not one to be upstaged, Instagram launches Reels, which is essentially a mimic of Tik Tok.
So how do we use all of this? Do we have to have a presence on every platform? What do we post and how do we interact with it all? The short answer is no, you don’t have to have a presence on every platform. In fact, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. But we do advise that you have a presence on social media that showcases your art and your hard work.
Beehive PR Digital Marketing helps take all the floating balloons of the social media world and hold them in one neatly arranged bunch that showcases all the best (and real) parts of you to talk to existing fans, make new fans and share your music far and wide!
Get in touch today and let’s chat about how we can help you with your release or your long-term social media strategy.