Facebook Competitor Analysis

Facebook is the largest social media system on the Internet. With more than a billion users routinely using the system, individuals are more successful at searching and finding “friends” on the site over other social media competitors, like Google+ and Myspace. Due to Facebook’s popularity and the massive number of current users, new users are more likely to select and open a Facebook account, rather than choose another company’s social media platform. With the largest group of users, Facebook has gained a tremendous advantage over their competitors. Moreover, the sheer volume of users has created a network effect for Facebook, which continues to draw in large numbers of individuals, based on the significant amount of people who previously

However, items like supermarket loyalty cards unknowingly to individuals collect a magnitude of information on their shopping habits. Likewise, individuals provide Facebook with data, which the company can analyze however they see fit. While this information is not only beneficial to Facebook, the personal data is also advantageous to companies who advertise on Facebook. Companies can utilize Facebook’s data to focus on marketing to specific demographics of people who may share similar interests that are associated with the marketer’s product. An example is people who follow patriotic themes, or military friendly pages are often targeted by companies who sell tactical gear or survival equipment. Likewise, females who like pages devoted to woman’s needs may find themselves inundated with products designed for women. Through enhanced targeting, companies may have a better chance of gaining more customers and a reduced marketing

Facebook now offers the ability to view an individual’s wall, click on a picture, and have the option to save the photo to viewer’s device. Facebook should create an authorization button, for those who wish to save someone else’s digital photographs, which would send a message to the original person that posted the photo asking for permission. If the user grants permission, the photo could then be saved to the viewer 's computer. If permission is denied, the viewer can still observe the photo on Facebook, but cannot claim a physical copy of the image for their personal use. Furthermore, if permissions are granted, Facebook should also offer the ability to edit the image, through cropping and allowing different image filters for the photo. While there are other options to stealing an image like the use of the snipping tool, Facebook should seek to protect individual’s photos unless that person provides additional authorization for the picture to be psychically placed on someone else’s