Social media has exploded in a way that none of us might have expected after viewing the web landscape over a decade ago. Now a firm feature in the daily routine of millions across the globe, communicating via social media channels seems as natural to the human organism as breathing itself.
Underneath the rapid rise of social media and instrumental to its success however is unified communication technology (UC), that, thanks to its rich history and continued developments, has helped smooth the line between personal and professional contacts and better cultivate both networks.
As for how, here are four ways UC is responsible for the social media take-off.
Contacts
Thanks to UC’s incorporation of presence technology that unifies communication across voice, data, video and more, the contact lists we build between social media platforms are one of the key reasons we continue to update our Facebook status and tweet our friends and colleagues. Initiating communications with a firm context set in the background, we also feel more comfortable, on networks like LinkedIn for example, reaching out to people and developing relationships.
One Mailbox
One of the primary reasons UC technology is adopted by big business is because it enables its users to access all forms of communication in one central place, thus saving them the time and expense of keeping other channels open. Social media has adopted this idea in a similar way. Someone invites you to an event, they call you. You miss the call but then receive a text or an e-mail, without having to switch devices or platforms to see it. That’s how Facebook loosely works, with other social media channels incorporating similar features that make for the same process.
Video with Messaging
Social media channels like Twitter and Facebook have also incorporated video into their platforms nicely along with that of instant messaging and other data forms. In fact it’s a regular occurrence on Twitter to see a message accompanied with a photo, and, thanks to Vine, now a short snipped of video.
The bridging of video with UC is a key feature of all unified communications solutions that seek to centralise communication forms in one place over a single network. The fact that social media users are becoming more and more accustomed at communicating across a range of mediums, without having to leave platforms, points strongly to the benefits UC plays within businesses and organisations.
Data Storage
Just like social media platforms make use Cloud computing to store the information sent and received across their networks, UC predicates itself on being able to hold data in a single place accessible remotely.
Although the technology might be different, and UC’s perhaps more flexible and robust, the benefit of not having to store data on a user’s device is just another reason why social media has been able to grow so fast, so quickly.