10 truths about social media learned from a decade of campaigns

This article originally appeared on PR Daily in March of 2018.

Ten years can seem like 30 in the fast-changing world of social media.

Much has changed since the early days of Facebook—and some platforms have vanished altogether from the online ecosystem—yet some things have stayed the same.

Social media marketers are still trying to get consumers talking about their clients—and buying their products—with ever-increasing sophistication and style.

Here are ten imperatives that veterans of the social media game have learned over the last decade:

1. Everything (except the endgame) has changed.

In the beginning the department was called “Word of Mouth Marketing.” There was no Facebook Business, and we spent our time posting conversation starters to both MySpace (RIP) and online forums. At that time, we had no solid results to analyze and my computer caught a new virus every other week.

Thankfully for our results-driven team and my IT savior Paul, this is no longer the case. We have a wealth of data at our fingertips, allowing us to reach our customers more strategically than ever and to measure the effectiveness of our work.