1
,The Facebook Money Hack
,Chapter 1: Introduction
There can be little doubt that the nature of the internet has changed
significantly over the last two or three years.
Nor can anyone seriously question the fact that one of the most obvious
changes has been the rapid and exciting growth of the ‘interactivity' of
websites on a truly global scale.
With this proliferation of new websites and blogs claiming to be Web 2.0
friendly, and the stunning growth in the popularity of social networking
sites like MySpace and Facebook, it is becoming increasingly clear that
people all over the world are using the internet as a principal means of
communication in ever increasing numbers.
Not surprisingly, therefore, businesses both big and small have also
begun to recognize and understand the potential of such websites and
networks for expanding their customer bases.
For example, whereas perhaps only a year or eighteen months ago,
most large corporate websites were purely informational, many are now
being adapted to offer far greater levels of interactivity to both
customers and casual website viewers.
Thus it is that more and more customers are able to take advantage of
24/7 ‘Help’ and ‘chat’ lines that are appearing on many large corporate
websites with increasing frequency. Added to this, polls, customer
surveys, and inbuilt feedback facilities are becoming ever more popular
too.
Previously, on the vast majority of websites, such features were almost
unheard of. So, there would have been little about the average website
to encourage user communication, apart from a simple e-mail address
or two line reply form at the bottom of a webpage.
In the same manner, businesses are rapidly beginning to appreciate
that social networking websites that have many millions of individual
members from all over the world could potentially represent massive
market places for their products.
It is for this reason that a site like MySpace.com (which in September
2007 passed 200 million account holders) has become such an
, increasingly attractive proposition for advertisers to become involved
with.
MySpace is still far and away the largest social networking site, and the
one that most people are probably most familiar with. Having been
originally established in August 2003, it is also one of the longest
established of the social networking sites too.
Facebook is, however, the second largest of the social networking sites,
and is currently growing at a phenomenal rate, as you will discover.
For this reason, advertising is rapidly becoming an important topic of
debate for the Facebook owners, moderators and community members.
The purpose of this book is therefore to investigate in depth how the
Facebook site and social networking community is evolving, and how
advertising and promotional activities fit into this rapidly expanding
picture of development.
Perhaps more importantly, I am going to look in detail at how you and
your business could potentially use Facebook as a source of new
customers for your products and services.
One final thing to note is that, whilst most commentators will blithely
refer to social networking sites as if they are all exactly the same, there
are significant differences between them. These differences serve to
make the demographics and practicalities of using these sites for
business purposes entirely different from one site to the next, as you
will discover.
,The Facebook Money Hack
,Chapter 1: Introduction
There can be little doubt that the nature of the internet has changed
significantly over the last two or three years.
Nor can anyone seriously question the fact that one of the most obvious
changes has been the rapid and exciting growth of the ‘interactivity' of
websites on a truly global scale.
With this proliferation of new websites and blogs claiming to be Web 2.0
friendly, and the stunning growth in the popularity of social networking
sites like MySpace and Facebook, it is becoming increasingly clear that
people all over the world are using the internet as a principal means of
communication in ever increasing numbers.
Not surprisingly, therefore, businesses both big and small have also
begun to recognize and understand the potential of such websites and
networks for expanding their customer bases.
For example, whereas perhaps only a year or eighteen months ago,
most large corporate websites were purely informational, many are now
being adapted to offer far greater levels of interactivity to both
customers and casual website viewers.
Thus it is that more and more customers are able to take advantage of
24/7 ‘Help’ and ‘chat’ lines that are appearing on many large corporate
websites with increasing frequency. Added to this, polls, customer
surveys, and inbuilt feedback facilities are becoming ever more popular
too.
Previously, on the vast majority of websites, such features were almost
unheard of. So, there would have been little about the average website
to encourage user communication, apart from a simple e-mail address
or two line reply form at the bottom of a webpage.
In the same manner, businesses are rapidly beginning to appreciate
that social networking websites that have many millions of individual
members from all over the world could potentially represent massive
market places for their products.
It is for this reason that a site like MySpace.com (which in September
2007 passed 200 million account holders) has become such an
, increasingly attractive proposition for advertisers to become involved
with.
MySpace is still far and away the largest social networking site, and the
one that most people are probably most familiar with. Having been
originally established in August 2003, it is also one of the longest
established of the social networking sites too.
Facebook is, however, the second largest of the social networking sites,
and is currently growing at a phenomenal rate, as you will discover.
For this reason, advertising is rapidly becoming an important topic of
debate for the Facebook owners, moderators and community members.
The purpose of this book is therefore to investigate in depth how the
Facebook site and social networking community is evolving, and how
advertising and promotional activities fit into this rapidly expanding
picture of development.
Perhaps more importantly, I am going to look in detail at how you and
your business could potentially use Facebook as a source of new
customers for your products and services.
One final thing to note is that, whilst most commentators will blithely
refer to social networking sites as if they are all exactly the same, there
are significant differences between them. These differences serve to
make the demographics and practicalities of using these sites for
business purposes entirely different from one site to the next, as you
will discover.
