Social Media A to Z Series: F is for Facebook, 22 Key Facts You Should Know

Should we ask the question “What is Facebook?” Yes We Should!

• Everyone seems to be talking about Facebook. My goodness, there is a movie about it – The Social Network. Furthermore, there isn’t a day that goes by right now without some news about the site. So even though anything I write today will most likely be out of date by the end of the day, how could I not talk about Facebook?! It is a vibrant social community on the internet.

• Yep, Facebook is the number one social network- it is the victor of social networks. Perhaps this is a good time to share a few statistical key facts about the site:

22 Key Facebook Facts

1. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S.
2. Members are 50:50 male and females; however the female membership is growing at a faster rate.
3. Today the popular age group is  between 18-54 years old. So it is not just teenagers.
4. 55+ is the fastest growing age group.
5. 48% of 18 – 34 year olds check Facebook as soon as they wake up
6. There are 750+million users. If Facebook was a country, it would be third largest country in the world.
7. 50%  are logged on at any given time.
8. Members use the site approximately an hour a day.
9. 35 million users update their status daily
10. More than 60 million status updates are posted daily
11. More than 3 billion photos are uploaded to the site each month
12. More than 5 billion shares  each  month
13. More than 3.5 million events are created monthly
14. Usage is growing exponentially with mobile users.
15. Mobile users are twice as active than non-mobile users
16. More than 3 million pages are on Facebook
17. More than 1.5 million businesses have active pages on Facebook
18. More than 20 million people become Facebook fans every day.
19. Average user has 130 friends
20. Average user writes 25 comments per month
21. More than 70 available translations are available on the site
22. Top 10 countries are: United States,United Kingdom,Indonesia,Turkey, France, Italy, Canada, Philippines, Spain, Mexico.

 Enough data. What is all this telling you?

• It is saying that there are a lot of people that come together to hang out and chat on Facebook. They are not just teenagers, in fact  one of the fastest growing group is  the 55+.  It is not slowing down, it is growing at a rapid rate. Facebook has become a preferred place by many  to stay in touch, get feedback and make new friends and finding old ones!

• Facebook is currently  the biggest online connecting forum outside of emails!  For many, Facebook has become their email. You know you have “arrived” when your brand name is used as a verb:” Facebook me” is now a common term today as a way to say send a note or mail by.

Here are some to of the reasons why people use Facebook:

1. To find  and interact with friends and family members.
2.  To share experiences (personal, new purchase, movies and more).
3. To gather feedback on an items.
4. To increase exposure on a hobby or expertise.
5. To join or develop focus groups-it is a place where people speak freely.
6. To  share a personal-side with customers
7. To increase endorsements and in turn the sharing of these endorsement throughout the community.
8. To find deals and discounts from Facebook pages.
9. To link website or blogs to a vibrate community with the hope it will drive some of that community back to the website
10. To write a Facebook blog.

• Connections are friends you invite to be part of your Facebook network. You have a limit of 5000 friends with your profile.
• Facebook profile wall is your bulletin board to your friends. This is where you would post information to share with your friends.
• Facebook Newsfeed: This is your own “ticker” where all your friend’s wall posts are consolidated into a news stream for you to digest. You can select from this stream any of these items to re-post to your wall for your network to view and digest.
• Facebook profile- This is information about you that you have chosen to share with your friends and public, You can select the extent of information that want to share.
• Likes-  you have the ability to show you like an item by clicking the “like” button. The number of likes,  and comments on your wall are measures of how engaged your network is with you.
• Shares- I  described the importance of shares in the “C is for Comments” blog- post. A share is a good gesture, If you like a comment, photo  or other item. You have the ability to share this item on your profile wall, so that your network have opportunity to see it.
• Facebook  Pages- these are business pages. Whereas your profile has a limited  with the number of friends you may have, Facebook pages does not.All pages are searchable where as your profile  is not.

So what’s new at Facebook?

As I said earlier, there seems to be a lot of changes  with Facebook, especially since the introduction of Google Plus as a key competitor.  Key  new items include:

1. Hardlyworkin App: this is an app  that disguises your Facebook news-feed as an excel worksheet. Primary use is at work!  Need I say more.
2. Facebook emergency disaster use. Not necessarily new however growing in its usage.1in 5 people use Facebook as their primarily source of information during an emergency disaster situation.
3. Facebook  made 1.6Billion dollars in the first half of the current year.  The primary source of revenue is through advertising and virtual products.
4. Videochat was introduced in July 2011. This introduction was conducted in partnership with Skype.
5. Sharing music, television shows and other media on Facebook are currently under development
6. 9/11 Memorial Collaboration. Facebook has collaborated with the National September 11 Memorial and Museum to recognize 9/11.

Propaganda Poster from  ritholtz.com:

Cartoon used by permission of the Cartoonist.

Related articles

• Vote to See Inside Facebook and Inside Network Panels at SXSW (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook: Who Are Your Friends? (madisonsmc.org)
• Facebook Facts and Figures (geekosystem)
• 50 Fascinating Facebook Facts and Figures (jeffbullas.com)