Last month we looked at Twitter in our first “Navigating the social media minefield” blog, this time it’s Facebook!

Facebook was developed in the dorm room of Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was at Harvard University. The concept behind Facebook was to facilitate interaction between friends, family and colleagues. It has since gone on to become the most popular and best known of all the social media platforms, with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2018. It’s been claimed that Facebook’s user base grows by eight people per second, or 7,246 people every 15 minutes… now that’s some serious reach!

An interesting fact about Facebook is that Al Pacino was the first “face” that appeared on the platform. One of the very early versions of the site contained a header image that showed a man’s face obscured behind the binary code. It wasn’t clear who the face belonged to, but it emerged later that the face was that of acclaimed actor Al Pacino!

Facebook hasn’t been without its issues – in September 2018 it announced that up to 50 million of its users had been exposed by a security flaw that could allow hackers to log in to other accounts that use Facebook’s system. Not only that, earlier in 2018 there was the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It emerged that used personal information from Facebook had been taken without authorisation in early 2014 to build a system that could profile individual US voters so they could be targeted with personalised political advertisements.

Despite some clearly negative publicity, Facebook’s popularity has barely wavered and it looks like it’s very much here to stay.

What you need to know about Facebook:

  • Joining Facebook is free, as is using it – all you need is internet access and you can log in to use it wherever you are in the world. It’s recognised as being one of the most user-friendly platforms available with a wide range of age groups regularly accessing it.
  • The age requirement for joining Facebook is 13 or over.
  • Although it’s a public platform, you can create privacy settings that mean only the people you have agreed to allow access are able to see what you post. This is something you can’t do on Twitter.
  • The platform facilitates sharing messages, videos links, photographs and websites. It positively reinforces engaging with others in areas of interest to you as an individual or even as a business.
  • Facebook “stories” are becoming increasingly popular, and are a huge trend for 2019. You can stream “live” or upload video content and share with your friends. Static images are achieving less and less interaction across many social media sites, and Facebook is no exception.
  • There is also a messenger service called Facebook Messenger where you can engage with your friends or public pages.
  • If you’re a business, try experimenting with Facebook ads and targeting to increase your reach.
  • While organic reach for businesses has definitely waned over recent years, it’s still important for your business to have a Facebook page. It provides social proof of your service – the reviews section specifically can be vital for businesses to be able to showcase verified client reviews.

If you feel like you can’t face Facebook, that’s what SocialBee is here for!

We can take care of it all for you and manage your page on your behalf. Or you can sign up for one-to-one or group training sessions where we’ll provide you with the wisdom you need to conquer the world of social media on your own.