To those who say the current king of social media sites, Facebook, is unassailable comes a cautionary tale from Gizmodo of when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) ruled the world, and made the internet a social place to interact with friends; rather than a static place to read information.
Everyone had an AIM handle. You didn’t have to worry about who used what. Saying “what’s your screenname” was tantamount to asking for someone’s number—everyone owned it, everyone used it, it was simple, and it worked.
Every social network should be looking over its shoulder at the competition and remember that users are willing to switch networks in a heartbeat (look at MySpace). Marketeers need to remember this also and not become too tied to one network.
Source: Gizmodo — Remember When AOL Instant Messenger Was Our Facebook?