People like to connect, communicate and share.
It can be seen through the development of languages, the exchange of letters, the invention of the phone and today’s social media platforms such as Google +, Twitter and Facebook. Facebook being an important social media platform with 1. 19 billion users worldwide (Facebook Key Facts 2013), since 2004 it has been attracting more and more users. It is of interest how Facebook is keeping it’s free service for its users, and despite its significant size still is growing its user base and revenue. Two questions are open: First, what is the marketing processes involved in Facebook’s success story’second, what are the key factors Facebook should be aware of for the next 5 years to maintain/reinforce its competitive advantage of value creation and customer relationships?1.
Facebook Inc. Facebook is in itself interesting to analyze because of several aspects. Through its worldwide user base, it globally connects in one platform the largest population segment of potential targets for marketers with a technologically innovative model, a social media platform. Marketers are being offered advertising space at a global scale. This maximizes value creation for marketers and target markets, as depending on what information users allow Facebook to share, the adverts are tailored to the users’ interest (Annual Report 2012 p. 5).
Marketing is a process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships to capture value from customers in return (Kotler and Armstrong et al. , 2013). Concerning Facebook, the company creates value for 3 different markets. First, for the general users it provides a social platform enabling them to stay connected with their friends an. . 013-11NASDAQGS (2013).
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