The Development of Social Networking Tools and Platforms

Discussion Boards and Instant Messaging

Generally speaking in internet marketing Forums allow its members to communicate with each other via a threaded message system in which one person posts a questions or a comment and then other peoples responses to that question or comment are posted in chronological order for all members to see.

Online sites were the first community sites that came with a user friendly interface that made it easy for non-tech types to use, it started on a personal level. People who shared an interest or something in common, such as teenagers or developers or stamp collectors.

Over the years Forums have evolved to allow their members to create their own profiles that can be viewed by everyone else in the Forum, and to post videos and links to video and send each other private email using the Forum’s messaging system.

Online Marketing – Instant Messaging

With the development of ICQ and other instant messaging programs in the mid 1990s, suddenly people could communicate back and forth without the time delay associated with email. This made the internet an even more appealing communication method and changed the way many people would engage with each other forever.

The most popular social networking sites now incorporate instant messaging tools on their respective platform’s, making it easy for their members to communicate in real time. Many of these instant messaging system’s built into the platform like Facebook have even become more popular than the ones built into the users own operating system such as Windows Live Messenger.

Online Marketing – Dating sites and social networking

The marriage of the Internet’s interactive communication tools with the vast population of online users who were searching for Mr. or Mrs. Right led to the first modern social networks. Dating were the first online networking platforms that allowed their users to create profiles with photo’s that others could easily browse looking for a perspective partner. This same functionality would later be integrated into Facebook as an integral part of the social networking experience using their platform.

By offering an artificial but realistic way of replacing social situations like going to a bar to meet someone, these sites flourished and brought many people together some of them formed long terms relationships from these virtual social introductions.

It could also be said that dating sites actually made social networking attractive to a lot of individuals who would have otherwise completely ignored it. This specific form of social networking option provided a more accessible means of achieving an important social goal, finding a partner, which it has to be said made social networking relevant to a large portion of the population.