Facebook Story

A Little Background

The story of Facebook began when Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched it on February 4th, 2004, originally creating it to connect Harvard students with each other. It thus spread like wildfire in the Boston area, to other Ivy League schools, and eventually to the world, as the year ended with Facebook having 1 million users signed up. Today, Facebook is a global social network with almost 3 billion monthly users, serving as the most popular social network in the world. Roughly 1.6 billion people on average visit Facebook on a daily rate, a very significant portion of the entire population! The number of Facebook users had been steadily increasing since its origins in 2004 but rapidly jumped in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started, proving that people used Facebook in order to stay connected with others at a distance.

Target Audience 

Facebook users are mainly composed of men and women aged 25-35 years old, with around 18% being male and about 12% being female. Over 50% of Facebook users of all ages are male and roughly 45% of them are female. The smallest demographic on the site are seniors over the age of 65. Though the demographic has shifted to a slightly older audience, the majority of Facebook users are still relatively young. At least 70% of Facebook’s users are college graduates, demonstrating that Facebook targets those with secondary education. Around 75% of users make between $30k and $49,999 USD, and it is said that 75% of users globally have an income of over $75k. A study analyzing Facebook’s psychographics revealed that 23% of users use Facebook to stay connected with family and friends, 22% of users use the site to learn about news, media, and entertainment, 18% are fans of politics, art, and music who join interest groups to follow those interests, 17% are influencers who share videos, links, and deals with other users, 16% use Facebook for business, and 4% are gamers.

How to use Facebook

  1. To open up a Facebook account, all you have to do is go to the Facebook website: facebook.com, enter your name, email or phone number, your gender, birthday, and a password of your choice.

  2. After clicking on “Sign Up”, you simply confirm your email or phone number and you will then be able to access your account.

  3. Once you are logged in, you can personalize your profile by adding a profile picture of yourself and a cover photo that may relate to your interests. 

  4. To start connecting with friends on Facebook, you can click on the Friends tab atop the page or you can begin adding friends from the recommended list Facebook automatically makes for you, on the left-hand side of the screen. People you add on Facebook must add you back in order for you to become friends.

  5. On your homepage, at the top, you can write posts for others to see and you can include photos, videos, and more! You can put your location and event tag friends!

  6. If you would like to change who can see your posts on Facebook you can do so right when you create a post and change it to Public, Friends, Friends except, Specific friends, or Only me.

  7. From there you can like and comment on other people’s posts and then you’re on your way!

Built-in Analytics

The Facebook Analytics tool was retired in July 2021 but the site still offers the use of Insights to its users. Insights is essentially a different kind of analytic tool that any Facbook user can use to see demographic information about who engages with their page and how those people interact or respond to their posts.

Business Models

Companies such as GoPro, Nike, and Tasty have used Facebook as marketing platforms and it’s been working, with their Facebook pages each boasting 10 million likes, 33.7 million likes, and 97 million likes respectively. GoPro engages their audience and potential customers by filling their page with videos and pictures of people using their products during daring, adrenaline-infused adventures. Rather than focusing on the actual product at hand, they show how people can use their product, further engaging them. Tasty, Buzzfeed’s cooking video series, captivates users with visually attractive, short clips of how to make delicious food in a small amount of time. Not only are these videos short, making it more convenient and more likely that Facebook users watch the whole thing, but these clips don’t require audio in order to be engaged with them.

Personal Uses 

Facebook users who utilize the social networking platform for personal reasons tend to use it to stay in touch with family and friends, share media, and to stay informed of current events and news. According to a survey done by Pew Research, men and women tend to differ in what they like to see on Facebook. Women typically like to see photos or videos on Facebook, entertaining or funny posts, and learning about ways to help others more so than men. Men and women equally use Facebook to keep up with news and current events. 36% of surveyed users don’t like people sharing too much information about themselves and another 36% don’t like when others post things about them without permission.

Content Overall

User-generated content, such as text and images, funny content, inspirational content, giveaways, moment marketing, and most importantly, videos, are the different types of content that perform well on Facebook. This content does integrate well with other channels as similar forms of the same content can be found across different platforms.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

  • Helps people stay connected

  • Can be useful for education

  • Real-time audience engagement. National Geographic, for example, adopted the use of Facebook Live during their Safari Live series in which their scientists and other team members broadcast their work live, allowing for viewers to comment and ask questions in real time.

  • Built in analytics

Weaknesses

  • Privacy concerns

  • Risk of identity theft

  • Negative feedback on public display

  • Advertising requires bidding

Sources





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