Kanjera, Kenya. Creative commons image Credit: angela7 under CC-BY-NC
Both media and networks existed before the internet was even a gleam in anyone’s eye. Scientists know that 2 million years ago, groups of early humans gathered together near Kanjera, Kenya, to make tools for butchering animals. They probably exchanged information like water availability, predators to avoid, safe plants to eat.
They were engaging in a social network and developing shareable content.
Maybe not yet sharing photos of their dinner on Instagram.
But fast forward 2 million years. Now we do have Instagram. Dining will never be the same.
In 2007, I launched the College of Public Health’s first social sharing website on Flickr. The college now has more than 7,000 images on the site. In 2009, I attended my first social media training. We then launched Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels for the college.
As we were able to add staff, we expanded to Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
In 2013, Ohio State’s College of Public Health was named one of the most social media-friendly schools of public health in the country. We ranked 9th, up 5 places from 2012. We were ranked higher than older, more established schools.
Why did we do all that? I believe in using social media to advance business goals. By closely monitoring our analytics data, I could tell that more and more web traffic was coming from social networks. By the time I left the college, Facebook was the third-highest referring website to cph.osu.edu.
I am fascinated by the ways in which social networks have changed how we communicate with each other and with our favorite brands. Yet, I am also constantly aware that with all the new media out there, it still comes down to telling a good story.