Facebook Marketing Strategy

Introduction Facebook is a very famous social networking website, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in the year 2004. With more than 500 million users throughout the world, it has marked its place in every nook and corner of the entire globe (Facebook, 2014). A person aged 13 years or more can very easily create an account on Facebook, if they have a valid email address. It gives an option of creating a profile page, add friends to ones account, add ones interest, communicate with friends, share photos and videos etc. Along with that it also gives an option of seeing news feed, playing games, selecting different applications etc. An internet market research company, Alexa.com, rated Facebook in 2010 as the second website, after Google, which is most visited throughout the world. Background of the company Mark Zuckerberg was only 23 when he founded Facebook. He was a student at Harvard University and was studying psychology. Zuckerberg was good at computer programming and had developed number of other social networking sites like Coursematch and Facemash. Coursematch was where people could view others taking degree and Facemash was a site where one was able to give ratings to other people in terms of their looks. Initially, he named Facebook as The Facebook which was a name selected from different paper sheets which was distributed to freshers, profiling students and members in the staff. In just few hours after its launch, its popularity increased so much that almost 1,200 students at Harvard University signed-up on this site within 24 hours and a month later, more than half of the students who were undergraduate, created their profile on this site (Facebook, 2014). It was spread to other universities in Boston, along with Ivy League and ultimately to all the other universities in US. In August 2005, it bought its domain name as Facebook.com for $200,000. From September 2005, the high schools in the US were able to sign and after that, it began to spread throughout the world and reached the universities in the UK in the month of October, the same year. Within a years time, by September 2006, it gained so much of popularity that it was not restricted to only universities, but anybody with a valid email address could register themselves on Facebook. The users can register themselves free of cost and the website earns profit from different advertisements. Due to its tremendous success and popularity, internet giants Yahoo as well as Google has shown interest in buying Facebook (Facebook for Business, 2015). Marketing Analysis Right from its inception, Facebook used different marketing plans to make a firm place in the market. Facebooks Marketing Strategy or Strategies since it began The world has a total population of more than 7 billion out of which US has only 5% of this population. This means that most part of the population was outside of the US. In order to succeed, it was important for the company to expand itself in the international market. So, first Facebook started executing itself in the different languages of each country. This helped in strengthening the social networking of the company, which in-turn, helped the company to grow internationally. It is very important for a business to create such place on its site where the main problem of the users can be resolved very easily, which was, connecting to others in no time. With the creation of Facebook, this problem was resolved, first for the students at Harvard University, then for the other Ivy League schools as well as other colleges. Further, it expanded to the rest part of the world and people found it easier to connect to their families and friends who lived at a different place (Morris, 2014). Along with fulfilling peoples needs, the looks and design of the website also plays an important part in its success. Zuckerberg understood this very well, so, he made sure that Facebook looked attractive. For this, one of his most trustworthy advisor, Aaron Sittig, was appointed for designing the website. The attractive look and design of Facebook also played an important part in its popularity. Uploading right information is also very important. For this, at Facebook, the information is first gathered for the website and is searched to see it can be uploaded on the site without any negative impact and then an approval is given by the higher management. New ideas are also given and validated for the website. In todays world, one of the strategies that all the companies use is, communicating with the customers. Since Facebook was launched, it used to seek for the feedback from its users on different topics. This helped them to be on the same page as its users (Kagan, 2014). Along with that, Facebook also gave an option to other marketing companies where they could seek feedback from their customers on certain products. This proved very beneficial for the company as it gave leverage to both, the companies and the users, to communicate with each other very easily. Since its inception, Facebook dominated the market of social media. Other social media sites like Twitter and Friendster are also very popular and are a competitor of Facebook. However, with the above strategies, Facebook is able to be on the topmost position (Phillips, 2007). Easy to use platform The company provides such platform, which is very easy to use. It gave two options for login, they were, through email id and the other is through mobile number. Even the registration can be done using either of these two options. Facility improvement Initially, Facebook only provided the option of sharing images and status, putting comments and liking the updates. However, later they improved their facilities and started giving options of chatting, sharing videos, making groups, and also creating new pages. It also partnered with skype to give their users the option of video calling. Interface modification The company keeps on updating their interface after a certain time so that the users get different feel of its interface. Facebook has a special team which takes care of this (Stelzner, 2014). They have specialists who work towards creating interesting interfaces for the website. They even seek feedback from the users on the looks of the website. This helps them in getting the different perspective from their users which helps them in improving themselves. Applications Facebook has different applications for their users which helps them in staying in touch with their friends and families. The company also pays for these applications. Strategic Marketing options for Facebook moving forward Facebook has applied many new marketing strategies for future. Recently, Facebook started giving such options to its users, wherein, they can also use the login Id of Facebook to login or sign up in another website. Due to so many different options, there are many investors who have started investing in Facebook. As per EMarketer, in 2012 almost 88% companies from throughout the world invested in this company (Bright Marketing, 2011). It also forecasted that the progress of Facebook might slow down in the coming years due to its different campaigns which they are planning to launch. It was assumed that the marketing of Facebook will progress from 72 per cent in 2010 to 88 per cent in the coming years. But interestingly, it went up to 92 per cent in the year 2014. Due to its popularity throughout the world, it was also said that the marketers of Facebook will make sure that the site is dynamic along with being innovative. The company also launched some new tools for marketing purposes in the year 2012. This proved to be very helpful for the marketers in creating their own page through Facebook. Thus, it can be said that both, the marketers as well as the users, are able to enhance their experience with Facebook on a regular basis. Conclusion This report is based upon different analysis as well as research on the social media giant, Facebook. It provides many facilities to its users who use social media sites. It is so dynamic that from liking and commenting on other peoples posts, users can also create their own page and share their ideas and views with the other users. Hence, it gives a better and varied options to all its users, be it an individual or a company (Research and Market, 2012). Since the time it was launched, Facebook has used different strategies to grow in the market. It makes sure that it fulfils the needs of its users which helps the users of Facebook, stay with the website. Its new facilities, different applications, and a simple and easy interface does not let the users become bored. There are many other social media sites which have been launched in the market with the aim of replacing Facebook. However, Facebooks strategies have not let those companies take the place of Facebook. References Phillips, S. (2007). A brief history of Facebook. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015]. Slideshare.net, (2015). Facebook Marketing Guide PDF Download. [online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/dannyboles/facebook-marketing-guide-pdf-download [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015]. Facebook (2014). Marketing strategies [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marketing-Strategies/553415538012028 [Accessed: 6 January 2015]. Research and Market (2012). 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