---
title: The History of Social Media
description: The evolution of social media during the past two decades in historical mile-stones and an interactive video.
image: https://www.iliyanastareva.com/hs-fs/file-2171354194-jpg/blog-files/social-media-evolution.jpg
---

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## [The History of Social Media](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/the-history-of-social-media)

 [fa icon="calendar"] 26-Mar-2012 12:09:00 / by [Iliyana Stareva](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/author/iliyana-stareva)

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[![](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/hs-fs/file-2171354194-jpg/blog-files/social-media-evolution.jpg)](http://iliyanastareva.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Social-media-evolution.jpg)

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about [PR’s history](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/the-history-of-pr-briefly) and now it’s turn to present the history of my other passion – Social Media.

I came across a good [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuebaqkEumU) showing the evolution of social media over the past two decades (you can have a look at the video below). Here are some of the most important mile-stones:

- 1989 – the first PC’s
- 1995 – the Web becomes accessible to anyone
- 1996 – Larry Page & Sergey Brin develop BackRub, which later becomes Google
- 1996 – icq and instant messaging
- 1999 – the ‘weblog’ is born, so is Blogger
- 2001 – Wikipedia is launched
- 2002 – RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is here
- 2003 – MySpace launches as a social networking site
- 2004 – the birth of Facebook, [LinkedIn](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/being-linkedin-savvy-in-2013-infographic), Digg, Flickr
- 2005 – YouTube launches as a video sharing site
- 2006 – Twitter reinvents online comms and news braking
- 2007 – Apple and the iPhone
- 2010 – Apple and the iPad
- 2010 – Facebook launches the Open Graph

 

Just to add a few major events to the timeline after 2010:

- 2010 – Pinterest is born and in 2012 its importance is growing rapidly ([I’m definitely addicted to it](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/my-journey-into-pinterest) and many others are too)
- 2011 – Google+ is alive
- 2011 – Facebook launches Timeline, which will also become mandatory for businesses by March 30th

As you can see social media has become an entire industry and an integral part of the way we communicate and connect with each other. It is here to stay, so as the American Journalism Review says you don't really have a choice but to either “Adapt or Die.”

 

 Topics: [Social Media](https://www.iliyanastareva.com/blog/topic/social-media)

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Iliyana Stareva is a thought leader in Customer Success and AI. She’s the author of Inbound PR, a keynote speaker, and currently leads Customer Health for EMEA at ServiceNow. Iliyana has held global and regional roles at ServiceNow, Cisco, and HubSpot, spanning customer experience, operations, and digital transformation.

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