Ever wondered how popular social platforms evolved over the past decade? If you answer yes, this post is for you. Evolution of social platforms 2010-2020. If you answer no, it’s still an interesting read. 🙂
Before reading below, check out these articles:
- U.S. Online Ads by Format and Platform
- Sprout Social 2019 Study on Social Media
- Twitter in 2019
- Pinterest Gains More Advertising
- Hottest Social Media Marketing Tools
A Look at SIX Leaders: Evolution of Social Platforms 2010-2020
Recently, HubSpot presented an in-depth look at six social platforms, written by Pamela Bump. The six platforms under review (in the order described by Bump): Facebook. Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Reddit. For each platform, she examines its status in 2010. Its unique features. The changes since 2010. Its stature in 2020.
Next, we present a look at each of the platforms. From a 2010 perspective. As well as from a 2020 vantage point. Based on Bump’s article. To access her whole article, click the image after the highlights of the six platforms.
2010: Facebook, which originally targeted college students, already reached millions of users in young adult age groups and had just gone through a few major redesigns since it first launched in 2004. It grew its audience to 600 million.
2020: Despite all the new platforms emerging in the last decade, Facebook remains (by far) the biggest and most successful with 2.4 billion monthly active users. Additionally, Facebook expanded its demographic.
2010: Instagram was launched in 2010 as a social media app for photo-sharing. At that time, it offered simple layout with a basic photo feed. Similar to Instagram’s current feed, it showed a user’s name, then a photo, then the photo’s likes, and a description. By 2012, the simple social media app was already seeing over 100,000 app downloads per day.
2020: Within the last decade, Instagram made its design look less busy by opting for a white background. It has also replaced the giant upper logo banner with a smaller logo and a navigation bar which includes a camera icon for Instagram Story recording, a TV icon which will bring you to IGTV, and a paper airplane icon for your direct message inbox. [It is now owned by Facebook.]
2010: When Pinterest launched in 2010, the platform’s purpose was simple. It allowed you to save and store links to Web sites that you thought were interesting. At the site, you could save and present a “collection” of web content that you wanted to share with people similar to you. To keep your link collections organized, you could categorize them by creating a Pinterest board around an overarching topic.
2020: The platform is more compact and mobile-optimized. As the social media network’s logo has been minimized. And the search bar has become a more natural fit into the upper navigation. Unlike the old design, you can also see notifications when someone shares or engages with one of your posts — also called pins. With brands like Target using Pinterest boards to highlight product lines, the platform has become a natural fit for advertisements.
2010: Twitter was founded in 2006 with a similar positioning as today. It was a social network where you could fire off short thoughts about trends, topics, or events that were important to you. These thoughts came in the form of text-based tweets under 140 characters. After rolling out a number of simple features including follows, replies, and hashtags in 2007 and 2008, Twitter launched its first major redesign in 2010.
2020: The main page is a lot easier to navigate. With the feed placed directly in the center, you can still access its key features. Like Lists and your profile. Simply by clicking on buttons in the left navigation bar. The site still also prioritizes trends by dedicating the right sidebar to viral topics and hashtags and a “Who to Follow” box. Furthermore, tweets may use up to 280 characters.
2010: Reddit was launched as a discussion-oriented social media network in 2005. However, it didn’t become a viral success overnight. Just before 2010, Reddit moved its Web site to Amazon Web Services servers which tripled its traffic. By 2010, the platform’s founders claimed that they were seeing roughly 8 million visitors per month.
2020: Although Reddit’s formatting has changed a lot, it’s audiences are still interested in similar things. Although the most popular subreddits have evolved to more specific topics, such as “emerging technology,” many of them still loosely relate to the platform’s earliest most-popular topics of “science” and “programming.”
2010: LinkedIn launched in 2003 as a members-only networking platform that you had to subscribe to with a membership fee. By 2011, it was free. And it had become the first and most popular professional social media network. That year, the firm drastically increased its funding and brand awareness with an IPO. But, at this point, the site looked suspiciously nascent.
2020: LinkedIn’s an online networking necessity with a much more intuitive layout. A recent study found that over 122 million people have received an interview through the social network.Additionally, today’s layout includes a messaging feature which is crucial for both social and professional networking. [LinkedIn is now owned by Microsoft.]
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