Today, Facebook is one of the largest and most successful social media networks worldwide. It is used by people to connect with friends and family, and keep updated on what is happening in their lives. There are many heartwarming stories of people connecting over Facebook after being out of touch for years or even decades. Businesses too are seeing the value of Facebook as a marketing tool and a way to reach their target markets. The applications have grown so wide that almost any company in any industry can use it as a marketing tool. It would be interesting to know if the founders of Facebook ever dreamed that it would become such a large organization.

Humble Dorm Room Beginnings

Facebook was originally started by Mark Zuckerberg while he was studying at Harvard University. It was originally called the facebook and just a part-time hobby for Zuckerberg. It was created as a social networking platform for Harvard students. On the site, students could log in and share information about events and what they were up to. They could also post pictures and social events to share with their friends. As the concept caught on, it was widely endorsed by Harvard students. Soon the network was expanded to the universities of Yale and Stanford. A fellow student Edwardo Saverin helped finance the project. As the project grew, two fellow students, Dustin Muskowitz and Chris Hughes, joined Zuckerberg in his efforts to grow the site. Several months later, thefacebook was a nationwide phenomenon among universities and colleges in America. In order to pursue their dreams, Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Muskowitz dropped out of Harvard to work full time on thefacebook concept. In August 2005, the name was officially changed from thefacebook to Facebook and the facebook.com domain was purchased for a reported $200,000.

Expansion of the Facebook Concept

In its early days, Facebook remained a closed community, accessible only to registered students of universities and colleges in the United States, Canada and other English-speaking nations across the world. There was also some controversy surrounding Facebook as fellow Harvard students accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. There was ongoing litigation for some time before a settlement was finally reached out of court in 2008 for an estimated $65 million. By this stage, Facebook was a worldwide phenomenon that had opened up to broader audiences. No longer were the users all university students. Now professionals and private users were able to connect over this social platform. A wide range of quirky applications allowed users to take quizzes, set up groups, and play games. In addition, networking opportunities opened up as people formed groups, developed company pages and created events.

The New Face of Facebook

Now with an estimated 400 million users worldwide, Facebook has become a major force to be reckoned with in social media. It is now said to have overtaken its competitors such as Twitter and Myspace as the leading social network platform with more than 60 percent of the market share. The activity on Facebook is nothing short of phenomenal. With links to mobile phones, there are more than 100 million users that access Facebook through their mobile phone. These users are said to be among the most active on Facebook. At least half of the registered Facebook users visit the site every day. Over a period of a month, users are estimated to spend 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. It is a social platform that has a global reach and is now available in more than 70 translations.

In terms of business, it is a platform that is used by more than a million entrepreneurs and businesses in more than 180 countries worldwide. Its success is evidenced in the fact that at least 70 percent of Facebook users engage with platform applications each month. A large majority of top-ranked websites worldwide have integrated with Facebook as it is seen as the single most powerful social networking tool available on the Web. Given that more than 250 billion pieces of content are shared in any given month, it is not difficult to see why it has become such a huge business success.

What This Means for Businesses

No matter how you personally feel about social networking, Facebook is one media tool that no smart business person can ignore. The broad access that it provides to markets worldwide and the dynamic nature of the application is something that any business can tap into.

INT Social Marketing is a full service social media intelligence firm providing Facebook, Twitter, video marketing and copywriting service solutions for all manner of clients.