The Evolution of Social Media
BusinessWeek recently revisited a cover story from the May 2, 2005 issue titled “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” The updated article looks closely at the predictions it made in 2005 about the impact of blogging on business and tells us what they got right and wrong. In 2005, the magazine predicted that mainstream media would “take over vast commercial stretches of the blogosphere.” We know they missed that one, with influential sites like Engadget and Techcrunch earning millions of readers. The magazine also failed to predict the emergence of other social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and the voice that social media would give both consumers and corporate employees.
Unlike in 2005, now both consumers and employees are networking online, often with each other. Corporate blogs are no longer just for executives and many executive blogs are viewed only as corporate PR. Consumers continue to voice their opinion about the products, brands and services they use, but now businesses have the ability to listen closely. In the end, the updated article is re-titled “Social Media Will Change Your Business,” but the new article is lighter on predictions. Perhaps this is a sign that even the experts are unsure what the future holds for the impact of social media on business.
