Facebook

A Social Networking Platform

True, we do love Facebook. But what exactly is it about the platform that makes us love it?

Facebook is one of the most common networking and popular social media platforms today. Founded by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg on February 4th, 2004, Facebook was initially created to enhance communication amongst Harvard students. However, the platform grew in popularity in the next two years as local colleges and universities started using it. Facebook was released in 2006.

The social media platform has a variety of uses, both individually and commercially. Facebook has changed society from traditional communication and networking channels. Primarily, Facebook is used for social networking and connecting friends and relatives. Through these connections, users can share their life moments online through visual media such as pictures and videos. Facebook, users can also message each other through its child app, Facebook Messenger.

A crucial part of Facebook is that it is relatively accessible and straightforward to set up a profile.

Facebook’s Finances

Facebook’s annual revenue was $8.56 bn in 2020. This revenue is from it being a brilliant platform for thriving businesses. Facebook’s eCommerce platform has also succeeded. Users can sell and reach potential buyers quickly. In addition, the newly-created Facebook Marketplace has hosted over 100 million sales worldwide. 

As of December 2022, Facebook registered nearly 3 billion users, making it the most popular social media platform today. People of all ages use it. The minimum age requirement allowed for one to independently own a Facebook account is 13.

Facebook Experiencing Setbacks

In recent years, Facebook has had negative setbacks and mishaps. One of the recent setbacks occurred in March 2018 during the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. The British-based analysis firm breached the personal data of approximately 87 million users. Data from these users were then collected to influence the US election outcome. CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly apologized for the error and declared that measures would be implemented. Still, that alibi was not enough to convince the online Facebooking world, with much more skeptical to date.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal decreased Facebook’s popularity amongst its users. Also, it has kept everyone on their toes, especially marketers whose income sources thrive on the platform.

Other cons of Facebook include cyberbullying and trolls, hate and radical speech, and sharing explicit content. These activities are against the site’s terms and policy and its intent of usage but continue. But Facebook has proved to be likable in recent years due to many of its features. 

Keeping in Touch

Users can continuously keep in touch with each other through the comment section. Continually commenting on others’ posts keeps the discussion amongst friends alive and in real time. For businesses, Facebook has helped in advertising and increasing online sales. Constant interactions between buyers and sellers help explain what is trending on the market. That way, both parties can know how to access these commodities through the site.

Apart from the usual, there are some must-know features of Facebook that its users should know. For instance, Facebook Messenger allows friends to send money to each other swiftly. All its users can safely make their online transactions while Facebook’s cybersecurity experts prevent potential cyber theft.

Another anonymous feature of Facebook is its Facebook 360 and 3D Photo. The new 3D photo feature creates a new way to share pictures in a more fun and lively manner in a 3-dimensional perspective. On the other hand, Facebook 360 allows users to create panorama images of their surroundings and share them on their profiles.

Another anonymous Facebook feature is its Game Room. Through this feature, users pass the time by playing games, competing, or helping each other in different sports.

Facebook Features

FB Social media platform is a top website and app with a  vast number of attractive features that attract more users than before daily. These features keep users glued to their screens as they scroll through their feeds.

Facebook Likes

The Facebook “Like” feature is the most prominent feature the site has had. It is hard to talk about Facebook without thinking of the “Like” in it. Online marketers strongly suggest using Facebook as an off-page SEO strategy.

Like feature was added to Facebook on February 9th, 2009, by a software programmer and entrepreneur, Justin Rosenstein. Primarily, the like button shows that the user’s friends like the content as it appeals to them. Once clicked, the user is notified that so-and-so likes their post. Users can also check to see how many friends appreciate the content.

In 2014, a public Q-and-A was introduced, asking whether or not to add the “Dislike” button. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that he had no intention of adding the “Dislike” button. However, he pledged that sooner, users could show emotion to a post after his team remodified the like button. From this idea, the “Reactions” were born, back on February 24th, 2016.

Not Just the “Like”

These reactions include “Love,” “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad,” and “Angry.” Today, these are not only reactions used on posts but also in the comment section too. That way, users can react to comments more accurately in how they appeal to them.

The “Like” feature is also essential to businesses. The more likes a company has, the more of an advantage it has in seeking out prospective customers. When people like a business (or its products), the company can holistically assess its audience. Also, the market can analyze who likes their products or what it is about their enticing products. Facebook Likes also enhance competition amongst premises. With businesses trying to compete with each other for the same audience, they gauge each other using their likes.

However, there has been an uproar in recent years concerning the intent of likes. As perceived by many, Likes distinguish a person’s reputation and brand of personality. This can often lead to social stigma, especially since the number of likes equals someone’s worth.

The overblown importance of likes has led to the creation of illegitimate like-selling companies. Millions of fake accounts have been created from which uncalled-for likes come. Over 170 million fake accounts have been reported, from which the counterfeit likes stem. These anonymous have altered Facebook’s advertising algorithms in determining which brand has real likes.

Facebook stories

Since its inception, Facebook Stories has been one of the more recent standout features of the app.

Launched by Connor Hayes, Facebook Stories is similar to the news feed, only more visual and less wordy. This is probably why users have fallen for the feature launched on March 28th, 2017. All users need are their phone camera and the effects and filters of the app. One can take pictures and selfies using the camera and modify them using the app’s filters and after-effects. These settings are simple and don’t cost much data consumption, especially for videos.

Liked by 300 million users, Facebook stories are used by friends, groups, and individuals by Direct Sharing. It is restoring the intimacy and connection among friends with more meaningful and original content.

Facebook Stories has a few shares of its cons too. One of them is that it is temporary. Temporarily, the stories only stay for 24 hours before they disappear. Also, stories might not work for introverts. It ghosts them by circling their profile with a grey circle, with an alternate text, “This user hasn’t shared a story yet.” Also, the stories are only accessible to online users, so those who aren’t online can’t view them.

Messenger

As Facebook’s “child,” Messenger has reputably grown into a reputational subsect of its parent. Not only did it relieve Facebook of instant messaging, it has also revolutionized the texting and messaging industry.

Originally called “Facebook Chat” in 2008, Facebook Messenger was officially released on August 9th, 2011. Unlike the Facebook webpage, Messenger had many more new functions that could be performed to ease communication. For instance, users can now send messages and multimedia such as pictures, videos, or even documents to each other. Just like Facebook, Messenger has its Likes and Reactions. On this platform, however, one can react to messages (s)he likes and replies to them.

Messenger also allows the user to create bots. Facebook developers have programmed these bots and are scheduled to deliver updates occasionally. Such updates include the news, weather forecast, sports, and even games, and can be best utilized in a Messenger group. Messenger also has voice and video-calling enabled.

The good thing about Messenger is that it is open to the general public. One may access it in two ways; through your Facebook account or phone number. Users also have the choice to set preferences for Messenger as their default messaging app. Thanks to Messenger, people can now communicate easier off of Facebook.

These are some of the features that have made Facebook a regular pastime today. They complement each other uniquely, unlike other social media platforms. Facebook developers will work on the app’s features and enhance user privacy. For the next few decades, we’ll still hear of Facebook dominating social media platforms.

The Future of the Facebook Portal

Looking at the present state of Facebook

Facebook has been the face of social media for a long time now. While the concept of social media is still relatively new, we have already seen sites become popular. The one that has seemed to buck this trend and keep the top spot for the past ten years has been Facebook.

While the rise of social media did coincide with the rise of Facebook, sites like Myspace reigned supreme before Facebook took control. They made numerous headlines for many reasons, mainly how they handle users’ data. But this past year has been challenging for Facebook. Even with the negative attention it received, Facebook’s user base remains above its competition.

Control

Facebook’s control over the social media market is unlike anything else. With billions of users, Facebook remains at the top, with YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp all falling between 1 and 2 billion users. But of those sites with over a billion users, all but YouTube are controlled by Facebook. This means that Facebook’s biggest competition to lose its top spot could be itself. So far, Facebook has done an excellent job positioning itself as the king of social media.

Facebook’s Plan for Their Future

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg wrote a blog post about where he sees the future of Facebook. The overall message was that privacy needs to be its top priority, which is the issue that has driven away so many of its users lately. After all the new stories in the past year, it seems only to make sense that their new focus would be increased privacy because a lack of confidentiality put them in their current position.

Facebook, as a company, doesn’t trust the public. Before anyone makes a new post or message, they must think twice about the information they share. That kind of thinking isn’t what the average social media platform user wants. They want a way to connect with friends and family without thinking they should trade privacy.

Addressing Privacy

With the current lack of privacy being the most significant issue between Facebook regaining some of the faith it lost in the past year, we can see why that was the main topic of Zuckerberg’s post. Every issue he addressed was ways to increase their privacy across all their platforms, with encryption being their main topic.

In his blog post, Zuckerberg brought up the need for end-to-end encryption multiple times. This focus on increased privacy is a step in the right direction, but how much and how quickly this vision gets implemented will affect Facebook’s longevity. In the past, they have made small steps towards increasing privacy, like implementing private messaging, but there is still more they could do.

While increased privacy measures across their platform are a good sign that we can see a more secure Facebook, it also raises the question of why they are now addressing these problems. All the security issues that have negatively affected Facebook in the past year are issues that could have been proactive instead of reactive. They stressed a need for encryption in their messaging, a system they have already implemented into WhatsApp but have yet to include for Facebook.  Their reluctance to implement privacy standards in the past can lead to a bleak view of how they will be realistically implemented.

Plan

Zuckerberg not only laid out plans to increase encryption, which I think would be of enormous benefit to Facebook but also talked about another future implementation that could be bright. A keyword often mentioned in Zuckerberg’s blog posts is Interoperability, or the ability to communicate between all of Facebook’s platforms. In the blog post, there were multiple mentions of ways to pick a preferred form of messaging and use that platform to communicate with anyone on any platform.

There was even a mention of the ability to use SMS messaging to communicate with anyone using their platform, which could go a long way in making Facebook and its platforms a preferred medium for communication. Even with this plan to implement seamless communication, encryption and privacy will be the keys to its success.

After you read through Zuckerberg’s blog post paints a picture of a positive future for Facebook. With the peace of mind of knowing that your communication will be secure and private, They have laid the foundation for being the preferred communication platform in the US and possibly across the globe. But their biggest issue could be how quickly and much of this vision is implemented. While a platform with end-to-end seamless communication would surely succeed today, that platform isn’t ready today.

It remains to be seen if Facebook will still have the market share it does if it’s five years into the future when all these ideas are finally rolled out. If Facebook wants to remain a giant in the social media market, these ideas are a good start, but the timeliness of their implementation is what’s most important.

What Will Be the Future of Facebook?

We have seen Facebook lose something precious to any company, which is the public’s trust. If Facebook wants to continue being the social media giant it is today, regaining the public’s trust should be priority number one. Facebook believes that privacy is most important for its future; they could be either right or wrong about this. While increasing privacy is precisely what the public wants, and at this point, it could be the only thing that will bring back some of its old user bases, it can also hurt its revenue stream.

While it remains a large platform, and the ad space it can sell on its page should be a steady form of revenue, this is not enough to satisfy investors. Hence, why these are the most important for the future of Facebook

Zuckerberg also wrote about how the FaceBook plan’s to handle data. Multiple times he mentions that they need to stop holding data, and at one point, he even says that some metadata could be helpful for less time.  At the same time, he also mentions that some data will still need to be collected and analyzed for their security team to continue to do their job.

While most of these issues that have plagued Facebook over the past year are, for the most part, self-inflicted, they seem to be making the right moves for their future. This lack of honesty in the past also sets them up for much-improved communication in the future. Facebook will continue to be a public platform for sharing your experience and ideas, which should keep the data and revenue flowing for years.

Facebook’s demographics to date as of February 2020.

Percentage (%)	Composition
51%	American teenagers who use Facebook.
71% (52%)	American Adults who use Facebook. (Those who rely on Facebook for news.)
74%	Facebook users that log in daily, high-income earners that use Facebook.
10.1% (47.8%, 15%)	Facebook users from both the US and Canada combined. (Joint profits produced by both countries, the number of online US shoppers that comprise the profits.)
46%	Seniors on Facebook.
75% (63%)	Women in the US use Facebook. (Men in the US that use Facebook.)
40% (75%)	Women on Facebook who create meaningful groups. (Number of Facebook fundraisers created by women.)
88%	The number of users who prefer to log into Facebook via mobile than other means
5%	Facebook accounts are reported as fake. (116 million)
12%	Users who have taken a break from Facebook in the last 12 months.

 

Some other random facts about Facebook.

Number	Composition
1	The most searched query on Google.
3	Most visited Websites after Google and YouTube.
5	The most downloaded app after Messenger, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram.
13	An average number of posts a Facebook user likes per month.
38	The average number of minutes spent by a user per day.
50%	Facebook users that speak another language other than English.
300 million	Users that use Facebook Stories per day.
1.4 billion (10 million)	Number of Facebook users in the (number of groups.)

Source: Facebook Statistics

Take Away

Overall, Facebook seems to be taking all the proper steps for its future. By acquiring and improving all the platforms they have, they will remain one of the main competitors in social media for years to come. If they follow through on their plan to integrate communication between all platforms with encryption, their future will be bright.

As with any company, to the public, they have said all the right things and laid out a plan for a bright future. But, without follow-through, it remains a site that the public doesn’t trust and could leave itself open to being replaced by a platform that will give the public what it wants. Only time will tell what the real future of Facebook will be…

Facebook is a Necessity when it comes to Digital Marketing

The term ‘Social Media’ is the catch-all for a group of more specific sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, snap chat, Pinterest, and many more.

The effects of social media on businesses are enormous and should be a top priority when it comes to digital marketing and customer service. Many facts show that as a consumer, using social media to interact with businesses and shop for their products is also vital.  There is no other platform available in the physical world that could match social media’s ability to facilitate communication.

In 2015 survey conducted by a social media research company showed that 96% of marketers polled used social media. 92% said the use of social media was important for their business.  Most importantly, about 66% of the companies surveyed planned on increasing the use of social media. It is not going anywhere.

Social media is here to stay, and those who choose not to use it, either in business or personally, will miss out.  No other platform can compete with the instant gratification society yearns for.  Remember, your competitor is out there building a community of loyal customers, and those customers are tweeting, posting, and linking to billions of other potential customers. If you aren’t on the bandwagon, you will be left behind.