Facebook Marketing and Business Models

This assignment analyzes the role of Facebook in modern marketing strategies. It examines Facebook's strengths and weaknesses as a platform for businesses, highlighting its vast user base, diverse features, and potential challenges such as competition from other social media sites. The analysis further explores Facebook's profitable business models, focusing on revenue generation through advertising and user engagement. It concludes by discussing the impact of changing consumer interests and technological advancements on Facebook's future in marketing.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA ASSIGNMENT
Social media assignment
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Author’s note

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Executive summary
The report gives an insight into the role and contribution of Facebook in e-marketing. By
discussion on the history of Facebook and the fast pace at which it has grown, the report gives an
insight into the wide reach of Facebook globally. The contribution of Facebook in e-marketing
has been precedently with discussion on interfaces and features that promotes building brand
image and promoting products and services. The scope of Facebook as a profitable business
model has also been presented.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................1
History of the social medium:..........................................................................................................3
Current and future target audience and core users...........................................................................4
Competition.....................................................................................................................................4
Profitable business models..............................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................6
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................7

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History of the social medium:
Facebook is one of the fastest growing social medium that has become a part of everyday
life for people. Many companies are now using Facebook as a platform to promote their product
or service and create relationship with consumers across the globe. The diversified features of
Facebook provide managers with an important marketing channel to advertise their product. The
social networking site, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow Eduardo
Servin in February 4, 2004. Initially the site was created only for Harvard students, however with
time, it expanded to different colleges, countries and then to all persons who had an email
address and age above 13 years (Hoffmann, Proferes & Zimmer, 2016).The pace at which users
of Facebook has grown can be understood from the fact that in the first quarter of 2017, it had
almost 1.94 billion active users. Today, Facebook is a household name, however 13 years back it
was a site which was knowen only to few students in Harvard University. It crossed 1 billion
users mark in 2013 and it has crossed 2 billion figure in 2017 (McKenna, 2017). This is
reflective of how fast Facebook users have grown in the world.
Facebook has now become a major tool for brand building and conducting e-marketing in
business. It has played an influential role in building brand image and attracting new consumers
towards product. Some of the important impact of Facebook on e-marketing is that it has driven
online retail sales. The revenue of business managers and top entrepreneurs has increased based
on the number of times Facebook shoppers have visited the social networking site. Integrating
social media such as Facebook in marketing strategy has increased the likelihood of achieving e-
marketing goals (Strauss, 2016). For instance, Facebook has also increased online impulse
buying and buying or selling items in group from each other (Chen, Su & Widjaja, 2016).

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Current and future target audience and core users
In the third quarter of 2017, Facebook crossed the mark of 2 billion active users. Today
Facebook is used both by youngsters as well as people above 65 years of age. People are using
Facebook not only for networking, but also to seek employment and implement key marketing
strategies. The target audience of Facebook today includes college students, teachers, business
person and many others. Due to the immense opportunity that Facebook provides to business, it
is now projected to be used in customer care service, enhancing social experiences and
expanding ways to reach target consumers. After seeing the surge in Facebook use for marketing
purpose, Mark Zuckerberg has focused on improving the way to target customers for advertisers.
Retailer are likely to use Facebook features to their advantage for increasing e-advertisement and
sale.
Competition
Facebook is one of the social media tools that has contributed to many positive
implication for business, communication, journalism and social relationship. It has specially
designed interface for business purpose. This has given marketers the opportunity to create
attractive profile pages and target ads based on different consumer group. However, despite the
strength of Facebook in business, it has many direct and indirect competitors too. For example,
Facebook is getting tough competition from LinkedIn, Meetup, Instagram, Snapchat, Google+
and YouTube. Instagram gives the largest competition to Facebook as more number of people
are using Instagram for visual appeal which may have an impact on the amount of time users
spend on Facebook. Secondly, from the business and employment perspective, LinkedIn is
regarded as a more professional site compared to Facebook (Zide, Elman & Shahani-Denning,
2014). Apart from this, YouTube is also a direct competitor because videos strengthens traffic

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and through creation of own channels, more opportunities for advertising is created (Feroz Khan
& Vong 2014). Other indirect and small competitors include text message sites like Tumbler,
Pinterest and Flickr. Hence, as retailers are earning revenues based on the numbers of times users
are spending time on Facebook, attraction of users to other social media sites may limit use of
Facebook in marketing.
Profitable business models
Social medium is a profitable site for business because it provides a wider channel to
advertise products and target audience in business. The features and interface that Facebook
provides to marketers helps them in getting the right exposure for their products and creating the
image of their brand in audience. The increasing user base is the core strength of Facebook
because it is earning through its users. Apart from this, social media business models are very
diversified thus allowing proper execution of ambitious marketing strategy (Massa, Tucci, &
Afuah, 2016). Currently, with the high penetration of smart phones and internet technology, the
Facebook platform is going to remain at the top as a good business models.
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Reference
Chen, J. V., Su, B. C., & Widjaja, A. E. (2016). Facebook C2C social commerce: A study of
online impulse buying. Decision Support Systems, 83, 57-69.
Feroz Khan, G., & Vong, S. (2014). Virality over YouTube: an empirical analysis. Internet
research, 24(5), 629-647.
Hoffmann, A. L., Proferes, N., & Zimmer, M. (2016). “Making the world more open and
connected”: Mark Zuckerberg and the discursive construction of Facebook and its
users. new media & society, 1461444816660784.
Massa, L., Tucci, C., & Afuah, A. (2016). A critical assessment of business model
research. Academy of Management Annals, annals-2014.
McKenna, J. (2017). Facebook is about to hit 2 billion users. Here’s a closer look at the rise of
the social giant. World Economic Forum. Retrieved 21 January 2018, from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/facebook-is-about-to-hit-2-billion-users-here-
s-a-closer-look-at-the-rise-of-the-social-giant/
Strauss, J. (2016). E-marketing. Routledge.
Zide, J., Elman, B., & Shahani-Denning, C. (2014). LinkedIn and recruitment: How profiles
differ across occupations. Employee Relations, 36(5), 583-604.

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Appendix
SWOT analysis
The following are the SWOT analysis for Facebook:
Strength:
 Reached 2 billion Facebook user in 2017
 Regular addition in Facebook features
 High appeal among users across countries
 Provide excellent user experience
Weakness
 Lack of website customization
 It lacks features like video chat and group messaging
Opportunity:
 Increase in the number of users each year
 Open marketplace for marketing and advertisement
 Good source of revenue generation
Threat:
 High competition from other social media such as YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram
 Changes in consumer’s interest
 Features of ad-block extensions for users as a threat for marketing products and services

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