February 7, 2014

Looking Back - Facebook Turns Ten!

February 7, 2014

Looking Back - Facebook Turns Ten!

Looking Back - Facebook Turns Ten!

By now most of your Facebook newsfeeds would have been flooded with nostalgic videos of friends Facebook lives. To celebrate turning ten years old Facebook has launched a “look back” feature for users to watch and share.How Facebook Marked The OccasionThe one minute video titled “ A Look Back” features your first profile picture and a few of your first photos, most liked posts, and finishes with a collage of your photos and a big thumbs up from Facebook.Some may call it corny, and to be honest it is a little bit! But it is a nice feeling to see a small summary of what you have been up to since you joined Facebook.Even though some of the people and places in the photos might seem a little vague (seems photos are selected from your albums at random by Facebook) it is nice to know that each of it 1.23 billion worldwide users has been included in their tenth birthday celebrations with this little treat.OriginsIt’s amazing to think those 10 years ago on February 4th Mark Zuckerberg and a few of his friends were sitting back and launching ‘The Facebook’ with the sole purpose of connecting college students. Now it has grown into one of the most ideal platforms for online marketing with figures from 2013 showing nine million Australians are daily Facebook users, 7.3 million of those are on mobile devices.According to Facebook, more people on more devices log onto their network (and return back daily) than anywhere else. And advertisers are saving money using Facebook as a platform as they can narrow down who they are targeting with much more accuracy and speed.Marketing Via Facebook In 2014The data which Facebook can collect to directly target the potential customer is very precise and falls under three categories - Demographic (age, gender, location), Social (likes, music, movies, friend connections, activity via check ins) and Personal (birthdays, education, workplaces, relationship status).The potential accuracy of reaching who your business needs to reach is truly outstanding, and users will usually only see advertising which is highly relevant to them. This means businesses can connect in a way which was never possible before Facebook or other social media site existed. In many respects it has epitomised how social media has changed the marketing landscape for every business and brand.The Facebook environment itself is ideal for engaging the consumer as it increases the possibility of building a more personal relationship. Users can click on your links immediately, share or like your posts, and overall become more aware of the brand. In addition to advertising towards the target audience, they can also see if friends ‘like’ or ‘share’ the brand creating trust as these referrals come from people we know.Gone are the days where businesses must wait for the consumer to be in front of the TV, movie screen, magazine, or other medium. Potential customers are accessible for advertisers any time of day, where ever they may be. Over 3.2 billion likes and comments every day in the world shows exactly how much of an engaging network Facebook is.With this these very effective online marketing possibilities developed (and quite unexpectedly in Mark Zuckerberg’s own admission) over the past ten years, we will be looking forward to seeing what the next ten years has ready for Facebook!If you are interested in doing more with your company Facebook Page or advertising via Facebook, then get in touch with the Bang Online team.PS. The “Look Back” feature will only be available to users to keep if they share it, so if you want to reminisce then share away!