Hello, dear reader! I hope you’re well. I bring you a somewhat old topic, but one that remains current. According to a survey conducted by the webtsite Statista, Facebook is the social media with the most users worldwide – it seems like a joke if we take into account that the platform was created in 2003 and, before I forget, that its initial name was Facemash. But why should we look more deeply into this social media? Before we start talking about strategies and how to get successful results, let’s talk a little bit about Facebook, after all, the time for blind dates has passed.
As stated earlier, Facesmah, now Facebook, was created in late 2003 by sophomores at Harvard University: Mark Zuckerberg (I bet you’re already familiar with this name, right?), Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin.
The idea was to create a website where students could choose the most beautiful girls at the university. The choice was made through photographs that were collected from the university’s security system. Fortunately, Harvard executives took the site down for a breach of privacy. However, it wasn’t long before Mark Zuckerberg started to develop another platform which main goal was to create virtual friendship bonds and that could integrate students from other universities. That network was called Thefacebook. In 2005, the name TheFacebook ended up disappearing, giving way to the appearance of the name we know today, Facebook. The change came after Sean Parker, Zuckerberg’s adviser, suggested the name change. Thus, in the summer of 2005, the famous Facebook was born.
In the following year, the access to the platform, which previously could only be made by university students, became possible for secondary school students and company workers. It didn’t take long for Facebook to accept anyone since they were over 13 and provided: name, surname, email, date of birth, and gender.
Curious facts about the platform: in 2011, Facebook became the largest photo server in the world and the number of users using the mobile phone was already over 350 million! The trend has always been one of growth and, at the end of 2018, it is estimated that the platform has exceeded 2.27 billion users!
As expected, people stopped using this social media as a way to maintain a network of friends and started to use it as a way to publicize their projects, their companies and brands.
It offers several features that make the user experience as fun and complete as possible. Its updates to the website are practically daily. So, let’s talk more deeply about these resources.
Customization:
When the user has finished creating his personal page, he can personalize it in the way he likes most, for example, with a profile photo. As I said at the beginning of the article, the time for blind dates has passed, so if you want to add a friend it is always good to have a photo so that he/she can recognize you, isn’t it?
And if you want to create a page for your business, the process is the same. However, instead of putting a picture of yourself, you should add your brand’s visual identity.
Content sharing:
The reader was browsing on the Facebook feed and saw a very interesting article that a friend of his had published and felt the need to share it with his Facebook friends… Well, this is one of the best resources of this social media, as it allows interaction among users: what you shared today can be shared tomorrow by a friend of yours and then by another friend of his and so on. It is an excellent way to share experiences, articles, news, photos, videos. You can also leave comments on other posts, which ends up generating even greater interaction between users, making the user experience more dynamic.
Add friends:
We arrived at the main reason for creating the platform – well, let’s assume that Facemash was not created to make friends but to evaluate people. What made this social media so successful was the fact that people can add other users around the world, regardless of age, gender or country.
Likes on pages:
Are you interested in a specific page and don’t want to miss anything about that same page? Simple: click on the “Like” option that appears right in the middle of the screen. Can you see how it all makes sense on Facebook? This social media is not just for making friends, we can interact directly with a brand/business page. In addition, the pages on which you left your “like” appear on your profile, so your friends can identify them and they can “like” them too.
Chat:
Before we talk about chatting, I have a question for readers with more experience in life: remember the messaging platform that emerged in the early 2000s and was called MSN? Well, this Facebook feature is similar to the one we used at that time.
The Facebook chat, which is currently also called Messenger, is the fastest way for us to get in touch with our friends or with a brand. Yes, this feature allows a user to send a message to a brand page. Here, we can share photos, audios, videos and even make video calls.
Apps:
The apps that Facebook makes available to its users go from games, tests, online games, all of which are integrated into the user’s page. This was another way of maintaining interaction between users on the page. Thus, we can see that the big difference in this social media is the interaction between users. May I remind you that this was one of the first social media that generated an interaction between people from all over the world at the same time.
Groups and events:
Creating events on Facebook is almost mandatory if you have a brand and want to launch a new product, or even if you have a personal page and are having a party. By creating an event, you are making it easier for other people to be a part of it and publicize your event.
The creation of a group facilitates the exchange of information on a specific topic among users. Today, it is possible to find groups on the most varied topics.
Adverts:
We got to the topic that many were waiting for, but let’s go slow, speed racer, we’ll have an article just on this issue (so, keep following us to find out when). For now, let’s just do a little summary about this feature.
Anyone with an account on this social media can create a paid ad. The aim is always to reach specific audiences. With the help of these ads, it is possible to boost sales of your business, publicize your company, your event, among others. There is always a minimum budget that is calculated by Facebook depending on the goals of the campaign and the budget that is available, but as a general rule the user determines the amounts he wants to spend and, if he wants, he can always change those amounts.
Well, this was our introduction to the social media with the most users in the world. In addition to becoming one of the most important for the digital world, here, we can find all people and practically all brands. Don’t worry, we will have more articles on Facebook. For now, I invite you to continue to accompany us and, of course, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us! 😊
P.S .: Here is a curiosity for our followers – see how we always think about you? The color blue (which predominates on the Facebook site) was chosen by Mark Zuckerberg for being color blind and, for him, blue is the color he can see best.
P.S.2 .: If you were curious to know more about the creation of Facebook, you can see the film “The Social Network”, which talks about the trajectory of the founder and his other project companions.
Pedro Montijo
Sources:
Rock Content: Facebook: tudo sobre a rede social mais usada do mundo!