Social Media and Audience Engagement

            Everyday more and more people are logging onto social media platforms to see what is going on around the world. According to DataReportal, over 3 million people have joined Facebook in the last 3 months. (Simon, 2022) With the ability to check in on close friends and family as well as receiving up-to-date news and information, social media continues to grow into a large database of information. Within my research of social media, I have also focused in on the specific topic of organic engagement between a brand and their audience. Being able to have strong organic engagement with your audience has many useful benefits. Engagement with an audience can help a brand start conversations with their next buyer, create dialogues to learn more about their audience and can also help to stay connected to their followers.

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The History of Social Media

            Social media has grown fast since its inception in the early 2000’s. With the creation of smaller websites that hosted platforms for subcultures to meet and chat, a new way of connecting was brought online. These websites created unique opportunities for people to link to past classmates, and people with common interests, similar to dating sites of today. (Love, 2015) Some of these websites have stuck around and some have not, but the idea of social media and connecting online has grown immensely since its original inception. Today’s leaders of social media include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and many others. Similar to the use of blogs, social media was a conception for personal use with friends and family being able to share their daily lives online. But now with the growth of new generations and so many people spending multiple hours on these platforms each day, brands have come to realize the power that social media can truly have. According to DataReportal, currently Facebook has 2.91 billion users and YouTube has 2.56 billion users. Other growing platforms such as Instagram, who currently has 1.47 billion and TikTok with 1 billion as well, are increasing users each month. (Kemp, 2022) We now see that social media is an extension of marketing and brand awareness. Today, we can utilize all the different powerful tools that social media can bring to a professional brands growth and pair it with a personal experience each person has online.