Facebook

Facebook - is a social networking website intended to connect friends, family, and business associates. It is the largest of the networking sites, with the runner up being MySpace. It began as a college networking website and has expanded to include anyone and everyone.

Facebook was founded by 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and originally called thefacebook. It was quickly successful on campus and expanded beyond Harvard into other Ivy League schools. With the phenomenon growing in popularity, Zuckerberg enlisted two other students, Duston Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, to assist. Within months, thefacebook became a nationwide college networking website.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook

Advantages
· Allows user search for new and old friends
· Accessible to chosen universities having a high level of security
· Makes it less awkward when communicating with strangers or people you are not familiar with
· Love attraction - can be used as a dating service system
· Makes it easier to join groups having similar likes and dislikes
· Allows members to check students who are taking the same class, living within the same area, or coming from the same academy

Disadvantages
· Overcrowding
· Weakening long distance relationship
· Unsupported by physical adjacency
· Contributes wide-range procrastination
· Rampant addiction
· Stalking is possible
· Acquaintances be labeled as friends

What are the characteristics of Facebook? Why are many people engage in this site?

Facebook users create a profile page that shows their friends and networks information about themselves. The choice to include a profile in a network means that everyone withing that network can view the profile. The profile typically includes the following: Information, Status, Friends, Friends in Other Networks, Photos, Notes, Groups, and The Wall.

Users are able to search for friends and acquaintances by e-mail address, school, university, or just by typing in a name or location for search. When people become friends, they are able to see all of each others' profiles including contact information. E-mail notifications let users know when new friends have chosen to add them to their list or when someone has sent a message to them within the system.

A popular feature on Facebook is the ability to share photographs uploaded from a phone, camera, or hard drive. As with other private information, users have the option to allow only friends to see their pictures or anyone. There is an unlimited amount of storage available, which is a major advantage of Facebook's photograph sharing capabilities.

Because of this technology we have today's generation there are so many people engage in this site and the #1 networking site is Facebook.

Can you use Facebook in E-commerce? How and Why?

This is probably the easiest option for Facebook marketing newbies. It’s easy and free to set up a Facebook page for your business, and the Fan and Friend system helps you get the word-of-mouth benefits. Drive Facebook visitors to your e-commerce website, and you get the best of both worlds. There are also some ways to leverage Facebook pages for SEO benefits too, but we’ll keep that for another discussion.

Getting started is super easy:

• Set up a Facebook business page.
• Add plenty of keyword-rich content, plus ads and offers to lure visitors to your website.
• Use “Share” buttons to encourage visitors to spread the word.

Step it up by taking advantage of the full functionality of the system:

• Offer something just for Facebook fans – a gift with order at your website is a common and effective choice. Becoming a fan is such a small commitment that many people will opt in for a small, or even a virtual gift. Fans get your feeds, and their friends can see what you have to say, too.
• Create content. There are so many options here that you can easily end up with lots of things for visitors to check out – and the casual hanging around of Facebook encourages people to spend time on your page. Start Discussions, upload photos and videos, create Notes pages with authoritative information or import your blog feed into a Notes page, encourage Reviews, and use the Events section to promote your business with webinars, virtual meet-ups and special offers.
• Use Facebook Insights to track activity at your page. Since this gives you demographics, it can be a good adjunct to your website’s analytics. Use analytics to track the number of visitors you receive at your website from Facebook, and to track their conversion rate.
• Add a Facebook button to your website to get some two-way traffic going

How important Facebook in our society today?
Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Even your friends or relatives are far away far away youcan communicate each by means of Facebook and the features that their give to us.