Social media’s humble beginnings
Two decades ago, social media was built to connect people, not businesses. Platforms like MySpace and Facebook emerged as spaces for personal relationships—a way to keep up with friends and share life updates. Brands were slow to see the potential. Social media wasn’t yet part of any business playbook, let alone a critical marketing tool.
Social media was reactive and small-scale for the handful of companies that experimented in the mid-2000s. Starbucks joined Facebook and Twitter in 2008, fostering community engagement through initiatives like MyStarbucksIdea, while Dell tested the waters with direct Twitter sales as early as 2007.
These efforts were groundbreaking at the time, but they were also isolated experiments. Most businesses clung to traditional marketing channels, leaving social platforms largely untapped.
The rise of social media marketing
By 2010, the playing field that we all worked in had significantly shifted. Facebook hit 600 million users worldwide, proving that social media was no passing trend. Companies began to see its potential as a marketing tool.
Facebook ads offered reach; Twitter created opportunities for real-time engagement. Social media became a new channel for businesses to experiment with—although many still treated it as an afterthought, not a priority.
Then, companies like Domino’s Pizza showed what was possible. Facing a struggling brand image in 2009, Domino’s turned to Twitter with a campaign called “Oh Yes We Did!” Instead of hiding negative feedback, they addressed it head-on, sharing candid updates about improving their recipes. The campaign revitalized trust and redefined what social media could achieve: real-time transparency, stronger customer relationships, and a measurable business impact.
As social media matured, its marketing potential became impossible to ignore. Global ad spend has skyrocketed from $16 billion in 2014 to nearly $250 billion in 2024. Social platforms weren’t just marketing tools anymore—they were revenue drivers.
The explosion of platforms and the complexity that followed
As businesses raced to establish a presence on social media, the platforms themselves evolved rapidly. Mobile technology and faster internet speeds fueled this explosion. The leap from 3G to 4G made video consumption seamless, enabling innovations like Instagram Stories and live streaming. By 2020, smartphones became the dominant device for social media, and platforms adapted, optimizing content for mobile-first users.
Platforms multiplied, too. Instagram’s visual focus drove brand storytelling. YouTube became a hub for both short- and long-form video content. Snapchat pioneered ephemeral content, while TikTok turned user-generated short videos into an unstoppable trend.
This diversity brought massive opportunity—but also chaos. Brands scrambled to keep up with new content formats, algorithms, and shifting user behaviors.
Social media teams grew, tools were adopted, and ad budgets expanded, but everything felt fragmented:
- Marketing teams ran campaigns on Facebook.
- Customer support handled complaints on Twitter.
- Regional offices launched their own accounts to engage local audiences.
Without a unified strategy, messaging became inconsistent, teams duplicated efforts, and businesses lost control of the narrative. Managing social media had become a full-time operation, but scaling old practices only created more chaos.
From fragmentation to orchestration
By the late 2010s, it became clear: fragmented strategies weren’t sustainable. Social media had outgrown its silos. The businesses that succeeded were the ones who recognized the need to orchestrate their efforts across platforms, departments, and teams.
Take Cisco, for example. By 2014, the company had over 100 social media profiles spanning sales, marketing, and customer support. Two years later, that number had exploded to include 100 Twitter accounts, 26 Facebook pages, and over 300 YouTube channels. Cisco’s success wasn’t just in managing this complexity—it was in coordinating it. They turned chaos into cohesion by aligning messaging, roles, and workflows.
In the financial sector, American Express demonstrated similar foresight. Their OPEN Forum initiative, launched in 2007, provided small businesses with educational resources and community support via social media. Though they didn’t call it “social media orchestration” at the time, AMEX aligned its social strategy with broader business goals—connecting with customers, building trust, and driving acquisition.
It was doing social media orchestration.
Meanwhile, brands like Carrefour showed the importance of localized engagement. Managing over 400 Facebook pages for individual stores across France, Carrefour tailored content to local audiences while maintaining a unified brand identity. This blend of global strategy and local flexibility became a hallmark of successful social media orchestration.
The tipping point: technology and data
Technology also drove the rise of social media orchestration. In the late 2010s, platforms introduced sophisticated analytics and tools that allowed brands to track performance and tie social media activity to real business outcomes.
Social media stopped being about “vanity metrics,” like likes and shares. Companies began asking harder questions: “What’s the ROI? How does this tie to sales, leads, or customer retention?”
Algorithm changes on platforms like Facebook and Instagram further accelerated this shift. Organic reach dwindled as algorithms prioritized user engagement, forcing brands to adopt data-driven strategies to reach their audiences. Tools like Facelift and Facelift Data Studio (formerly quintly) emerged to help businesses integrate data, measure performance across platforms, and align their efforts strategically.
Why orchestration matters today
The evolution of social media—from personal connections to marketing channels to business-critical assets—has culminated in the need for social media orchestration, which we explain in greater detail in our Social Media Orchestration Manifesto, the defining material on the subject. Today, social media touches every corner of a business:
- Marketing relies on it for campaigns and storytelling.
- Customer support uses it for real-time problem-solving.
- Sales leverages it for lead generation and relationship building.
- HR uses it to attract talent and for employer branding initiatives.
But these efforts can’t succeed in silos. Social media orchestration ensures that every post, campaign, and interaction works toward a shared goal. It aligns teams, tools, and messaging, turning fragmented efforts into a cohesive, strategic force.
Conclusion
Social media’s journey from simple management to complex orchestration mirrors its rise in importance. What began as a tool for casual engagement has become a powerful driver of brand visibility, customer trust, and measurable ROI.
The brands that thrive today are the ones that recognize this evolution—and embrace orchestration as the key to clarity, consistency, and success.
For a comprehensive, data-driven, and illustrated report on the past, present, and future of social media orchestration, read our white paper Origin to Orchestration: Paradigm Shift in Social Media Strategy!
