A decade on from the inception of one of the world's most popular social networking platforms, analysts say Facebook is a potent online marketing tool - despite the inevitable shift in appeal.
Ten years ago today, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg arguably changed the course of human interaction as we knew it - and would come to know it - with the introduction of thefacebook.com to the Internet.
Today, Facebook is more than just a social tool for long-lost friends and family members. It is a formidable business tool that allows brands to reach masses of potential customers almost with a few clicks of a button.
Simon Leps, CEO of Fontera Digital Works, says Facebook's 10th birthday is a major milestone for the public company, which has experienced rapid growth over the years. Leps says the decade-old social media site has become an extremely powerful marketing tool for local businesses, in terms of driving sales by referring users to brands' Facebook pages and Web sites.
He says businesses are realising the importance of developing a social media commerce strategy, and are turning to advertising on Facebook to improve sales. "Ad purchasing is a major attraction for businesses willing to adapt to social media trends."
Leps notes Facebook currently makes the majority of its money from advertising - an indication that investing in advertising on the social media platform is a viable option.
Marketing morph
Tech analyst Liron Segev, from TheTechieGuy.com, says what Facebook started out as and what it is today is completely different. The transformation, he says, is in the favour of the social network's advertising ability.
"Initially, it was about people going online to find lost connections - kind of like a MySpace equivalent - and it has come full circle. Originally parents didn't want their kids to join the social network, but as they themselves joined they saw the potential of being able to keep tabs on their kids."
This development, says Segev, in turn, led to much of Facebook's youth base migrating to the Instagrams of the world - leaving Facebook with an older crowd, with buying power. "And that is the way marketing works. [Businesses and agencies] can be granular and target a specific group - as opposed to your Google-like ads that display on a page and hope for the best."
Segev says the question is, "do people see the ads and do they actually click on them?" The answer, according to research carried out using eye-tracking technology, he says, is "yes".
This is thanks to advertisers becoming aware of what would-be customers are likely to be looking for. "So adverts display according to what you like, and you are much more likely to click."
He cites the saying: "If you are getting it for free, you are the product" and says, unless users pay for Facebook, it has to monetise the platform - and will continue to do so.
Segev says Facebook presents huge opportunities for business in a world where advertising can cost an arm and a leg. "It gives great return on investment and Facebook has made it so easy to use that anyone can use it. Plus there is the benefit of a huge, targeted audience."
All the talk that the younger generation is abandoning the platform, says Segev, is true - but it is not a bad thing. "The younger guys don't want the interruption of adverts and won't respond anyway. That is why platforms like Snapchat, WeChat and Instagram are doing so well. The youth want the social element, minus the ads and without their parents looking over their shoulders.
"Facebook is becoming a 'modern-day book club' and teenagers don't want to hang out in their parents' book club anymore."
Mobile mass
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says, in the past decade of its existence, Facebook has undergone two fundamental shifts.
"The first shift was Facebook breaking out of the student market - and that led it to being a truly mainstream tool. But the more mainstream it became, and the more pervasive across age groups, the less appeal it had to the youth market. It isn't moving away from its roots, however. The teen market was never its original audience. Its roots were in the student market - and there it remains strong."
The second fundamental shift, says Goldstuck, was that to mobile - a shift that has come over the past couple of years. "From a business and performance perspective it was revolutionary."
Steven Bayhack, head of Fontera's development department Skunk Works, says initially many did not think Facebook would make the shift to mobile, or that it would generate revenue from it.
"But Facebook proved them wrong on both counts. At least 50% of people worldwide access Facebook on mobile - and in SA (where Facebook has a user base of nine-and-a-half million) that figure is even higher."
The mix of urban/rural demographics using mobile in SA, says Bayhack, gives Facebook's mobile advertisers the edge.
Goldstuck refers to Facebook's fourth quarter figures, which revealed of its total advertising sales, 54% came from ads placed on mobile devices.
Queen's University, in the US, issued a newsletter summing up where Facebook finds itself today, 10 years on. It cites social media expert Sidneyeve Matrix: "In spite of recent reports proclaiming or forecasting its demise, FB is alive and well 10 years in.
"As the granddaddy of social networking, FB has matured and may have lost some of its edginess as the membership matures and more advertisers take over the newsfeed," says Dr Matrix. "Yet Facebook is firmly positioned as the go-to, default, daily social utility for a billion users who rely on the platform to support the virtual ties that bind far-flung busy families and friends, through photosharing, lifelogging, and the ubiquitous 'Like'."
Share