Facebook : A social media tool for everyone

acebook : A social media tool for everyoneNoha Saleh

Hello everyone.I chose to talk to you today about Facebook as a social media tool that I believe it is the most widely used social networking tool in the world today and the reason I chose the title : A social media tool for everyone is based on what Mark Zuckerberg famously commented earlier this year that he doesnt care so much about Facebook being cool anymore so long as it continues to be essential to our lives, like a basic need a utility,like electricity.1

What is Facebook?An online social networking serviceOffers Public featuresConnects friends and acquaintancesShare pictures due to unlimited storage availableLargest and fastest growing social media network

1-Its name stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some American university administrations to help students get to know each other. - CEO: Mark Zuckerberg Founded: February 4, 2004, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United StatesFounders: Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes

Facebook is a free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. The site, which is available in 37 different languages offers a variety of services and useful tools.

2- FB includes public features such as:Marketplace - allows members to post, read and respond to classified ads.Groups - allows members who have common interests to find each other and interact.Events - allows members to publicize an event, invite guests and track who plans to attend.Pages - allows members to create and promote a public page built around a specific topic.Presence technology - allows members to see which contacts are online and chat.

3-Users are able to search for friends and acquaintances by e-mail address, school, university, or just by typing in a name or location for search. When people become friends, they are able to see all of each others' profiles including contact information. E-mail notifications let users know when new friends have chosen to add them to their list or when someone has sent a message to them within the system.

4-A popular feature on Facebook is the ability to share photographs uploaded from a phone, camera, or hard drive. As with other private information, users have the option to allow only friends to see their pictures or anyone. There is an unlimited amount of storage available, which is a major advantage of Facebook's photograph sharing capabilities.

5-Facebook says it now has 1.11 billion people using the site each month, slightly more than the 1.06 billion reported three months earlier. It represents a 23 percent growth from a year earlier. .

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What does it look like?A FB ProfileWhat is a timelineHow does it work?

- One of the advantages of FB is that you can create and download the FB application on your mobile. This will provide you with the flexibility of updating your status or checking news feed, checking-in in places as you go. For the purpose of this presentation all the description and screen shots provided here are from a the mobile application, but the information also applies to the FB website.Although the information FB needs to create an account is minimal ( name, birthdate and valid email account) you will be requested to complete your profile which is what people will see including your pictures, bio-data as well education, current employment and fields of interestI have shared here a screen shot of my personal timeline. As you can see all public information is displayed on this part of the Profile including your profile pictures, your friends list as well as your list of interest and whose posts you are followingOne way to control what people see is the Privacy setting feature which will be discussed later in this presentation3

What is a news feedWhy it is usefulHow businesses can benefit

What is it useful for? News Feeds

News Feed which is the center column of your home pageis a constantly updating list of stories from people and Pages that you follow on Facebook. News feed stories include status updates, photos, videos, links, app activity and likes.You can also check real-life comments from other FB users on the news feeds With the enhanced features on Facebook businesses can currently feed adverts and content by suggesting pages that some of your friends might have liked. The power of including contextually relevant information depending on the user locale made this tool very powerful to draw customers to products as in the example on this slide.4

What is it useful for? Fan PageConnect with potential customersPromote special discounts and couponsCan be linked to a Twitter account to draw traffic Fan pages are easy to set-up through the create page feature

1- Due to the large number of users visiting this social platform, many businesses have turned to Facebook as a way to connect to potential customers. This can be done with a Facebook Fan page2- A Facebook Fan Pages' audience consists of "Fans." These are the Facebook users who have elected to Become A Fan' of your business in order to receive updates about your business. The updates show up on that Facebook user's "wall" (a wall is a Facebook user's profile page) as they are added to the Fan Page. Many popular business Fan pages, including Victoria's Secret, Toyota, and Starbucks, have thousands or tens of thousands of users who display Fan page updates on their walls.3- Fan pages need to include content to draw interactions. Although a fan can potentially turn into a customer, it is not until this social interaction has happened that this marketing tool can be considered successful.5

What is it useful for? Check-insFacebook Places and check-InsFacebook DealsBusinesses can provide content accordingto location

1- Business owners are using Facebook Places for its Check-in Deals component. Facebook followers can check in to receive individual discounts, to be rewarded for encouraging their friends to save, and to receive savings for repeat visits. 2- Facebook deals can be used by companies to donate to charity. Deals also makes the Like button available, which allows your deals to appear in news feeds. Thats one way Facebook distributes your deals. Facebooks Deals Guide for Businesses1 describes eight methods of distribution:Facebook home pageDeals pageSponsored Deal blurbsWall posts by usersNews FeedNotifications to people when their friends Like or buy the same dealsDeals tabEmails

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How businesses or other organization use it?

Facebook and fan page for WCMC-QInteract with parents, prospective student and the communityShare news and Press releasesShare photos, videos and blogsOpen channels with the communityAnnounce events

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- Whats next? Information is Power: FB & GoogleRevolutions and turmoil?Collapse of some financial institutions?

These are more open ended questions:Most recently Google updated its strong search algorithm include Facebook comments and more dangerously note our search and sends it to a third party for advertisements. They also save these posts and gives them to third parties when demanded. This of course jeopardize you privacy. Of course the question remains what will happen when this information is shared with a potential employer, or an admissions committee or your health insurance company.Some government ban Facebook to control the amount of information their population have access to. What will happen if a more powerful nation acquires all this information and use it against another government? What if financial institutions buy information and use it against competition?

Why FB is thought to thrive even more in the future?the single sign-on Facebook Connect tool can become the dominant gateway to your media, e-commerce, and mobile experiences.the social data has the potential of dramatically improving theuser experience and target ads by accessing Facebooks social graphThe potential of developing stronger data analytics8

Interesting Stats:

Source:Facebook StatisticsSource: FacebookDate Verified: 6.23.2013

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Fakebook?

References:http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Facebookhttp://news.yahoo.com/number-active-users-facebook-over-230449748.htmlhttp://www.statisticbrain.com/Facebook-statistics/http://www.thesba.com/2011/07/20/businesses-on-facebook-can-use-check-in-deals/

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