Facebooks Hits 300 Million Members. Social Media Is Here to Stay.
Big news for Facebook over the past week…they’ve hit the 300 million member mark. Believe it or not, as Michael Malone at ABC News points out, Facebook is now the 4thlargest “nation”, just behind China, India, and the US. And, not only has Facebook reached a huge membership milestone, they also recently announced that they are profitable. For anyone wondering whether or not social media is just a fad, this is pretty darn good proof that social media is here to stay.
To give you a better sense of demographics, according to Inside Facebook, the fastest growing group of users in August 2009 were males ages 13 – 17, followed by men ages 45 – 54. Among women, the highest growth was in the 45 – 54 and 55 – 65 age ranges.
Hopefully Facebook can keep up this growth, as there is a huge opportunity for brands. Facebook unquestionably offers tremendous reach. Not only is it an accessible platform that helps brands make simple, authentic connections with loyal fans, the site is also used by a myriad of influencers including bloggers, journalists and “Alpha Consumers.” Beyond that, brands use Facebook to gain instant customer insights for business planning, to cultivate fans and drive trial, as well as to extend and integrate with other marketing efforts.
And while Facebook is not necessarily right for every business – in a July study from Burson-Marsteller, more Fortune 100 companies are on Twitter (54%) vs Facebook(only 29%) – many brands have already been successful using the platform to reach customers. Needless to say, Facebook’s future looks bright. And that’s good news for brands.
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