10 truths about social media learned from a decade of campaigns

Ten years in social media can feel more like 30 in a fast-changing environment.

While much has changed since the heady early days of Facebook, and other platforms have vanished from the online ecosystem, 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 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.