I know many will say word of mouth but I believe it needs more than just mouth(Guys please keep discussion clean) to beat the rival like Myspace. I remember when I stumbled across facebook I though "Hmm another social networking site by nerds living in Garage". But looking at the crazy popularity of it and watching "Southpark You have 0 friends" I believe they have done some sort of aggressively marketing. I couldn't able to find any clue. Does anyone know accurately how they achieved such status?
Viral marketing aka word of mouth. They also emphasized honesty and real user information like schools attended, etc and let people find their existing connection in real-world seamlessly. This helps retain users and encourage them to share even more personal information, photos, status since their friends are there to comment on their photos, status update.
Yeah but it has lot of features way before its huge popularity. My question is why there is such sudden explosion in its popularity in such short time? It was quite popular but not so popular that southpark has to be made a episode solely based on it and not on other social networking website.
I don't think it was not so popular some time back(depends how long ago you meant). It is the leading social network sites in several countries probably since Jan 2009(from wiki compete.com study) Just because it is shown on Southpark doesn't mean it got crazy popularity that they have to make a episode on it. Perhaps the Southpark makers are users of Facebook and had an inspiration suddenly. Besides their features/games retaining users, attracting developers I doubt they have a "special", "killer" marketing technique that makes it explode. I don't recall seeing any ads besides my friend mentioning about games on facebook and mentions from tech blogs and podcasts.
Its the site where u can make friends as well as promote your product.So its the best things which make facebook so popular among all over the world.
It seems to amaze me too.... Facebook has really, really grown strong. It almost seems a mystery as to how virtually every person has a facebook account. Do you guys remember hi5 et al? What is the reason that ONLY Facebook is now where it stands?
Viral marketing....see Facebook is a world, I was in Argentina and India on vacation last year and both places it is popular. I stepped into a internet cafe in Buenos Aires and half the people were checking facebook accounts. What made it international, the usability to know what people are up to.
I guess viral marketing is the only explanation for this. I am surprised nobody has accurate answer. Everybody has given very vague answers. Its surprising everybody is talking about facebook marketing but nobody is talking about how facebook marketed itself.. I am doing marketing for quite a long time. I always ignored it but it becomes so insanely popular that I couldn't able to resist it. I guess nobody really noticed how its popularity has suddenly exploded, I mean it has even beaten Google for few days, I mean its insane to even think about beating google but facebook even did that(may be for few days but beating Google!!!!!!!! Damn its too much)
Yup you are right, beating GOOGLE!? That's SOMETHING! Did you guys ever read an article from a tech website highlighting this issue? Can someone enlighten us here? or point to an article which talks about this? I find this fascinating, and to read about it would be fascinating too!
Yeah I too find it very fascinating. But the strange thing is nobody discussed it . I guess My thread is first one discussing "how facebook market itself" instead of "facebook marketing". And the more stranger thing is I found no proper article on this. Its kinda shocking to me how every marketer completely ignored it. Every one is telling very vague terms like: viral marketing, simplicity etc. But myspace has it all. Also facebook beaten Google but Myspace could never able to do that. So I believe there is much more to this facebook mystery than just viral marketing. Facebook had all viral marketing tools before its popularity then why suddenly those tools start working by themselves. But another thing I guess is they have done some really complex things that everyone find confusing and don't want to discuss. Strange but no article no case study nothing on this extreme phenomenon. And Believe me I am not exaggerating the facts. Its strange to me why everyone is seeing : Small picture: Facebook Marketing and Big picture: How the hell Facebook marketed so aggressively which sent myspace in stone ages I am not saying that everyone is going for billion dollar business but still studying facebook may help us all in some way.
In my opinion, Facebook made a focus on a hidden marketing among corporate users on a high management level (just look what kind of banners are outside: "Visit our offical page www.facebook.com/ArsenalFC", etc). That marketing is seamless for ordinary people, but what they might think looking at such banners is "even corporations are using facebook, so why not to register there". Thats only a part of possible explanation of course.
Facebook filled a void that was left in Myspace... word travelled quckly and it was an easy sell. The next greatest social network will also come along and replace Facebook....