Abstract
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with more than 900 million active users around the world. In a few short years, Facebook has become one of the principal giants of the digital age challenging companies like Google and Amazon with its vision of the Internet tied together by personal relationships and recommendations, rather than by search algorithms. Facebook is available in over 70 languages. Its users flood the social network with their thoughts, commentaries and photos on a daily basis. While Facebook is first and foremost a social medium, it has also become an important business tool. Facebook has proven to be an essential communication and marketing strategy for those organizations that wish to operate in today’s digital media environment. Central to this idea is that social media like Facebook provide a low cost platform with which to market and promote a company’s brand. Secondly, it provides an excellent way to recommend products, services and ideas based on advice and support coming from someone the user knows. This chapter provides a case study analysis of Facebook with special attention given to the power of intelligent networking and social media.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Auletta, K. (2009). Googled: The end of the world as we know it. New York: Penguin Press.
Berners-Lee, T. (1999). Weaving the web. New York: Harper Collins.
Caulfield, P. (2010, December 20). New York Daily News. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg kicks off trip to China. Available from http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-12-20/news/27084933_1_baidu-kaiser-kuo-robin-li
Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook friends: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12(4). Available from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/
Facebook company time line. Key Facts. (2012, May 17). Available from http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=22
Facebook lessons: What not to do when planning an IPO. (2012, May 24). Reuters. Available from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/24/facebook-lessons-idUSL1E8GOEI220120524
Facebook’s cool space’ campus points to the future of office growth. (2011, December 22). Bloomberg. Available from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-20/facebook-s-cool-space-campus-points-to-future-of-office-growth.html
Federal Trade Commission. (2011, November 29). Facebook settles FTC charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises. Available from http://ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/privacysettlement.shtm
Freed Google exec Ghonim thanks Facebook for role in Egyptian revolution. (2011, February 11). The Inquisitr. Available from http://www.inquisitr.com/98197/wael-ghonim-thanks-facebook/
Gershon, R. (2009). Telecommunications & business strategy. New York: Routledge.
Gershon, R. (2011). Intelligent networks and international business communication: A systems theory interpretation (Media Markets Monographs, No. 12). Pamplona, Spain: Universidad de Navarra Press.
Grossman, L. (2010, December 27). Person of the year, Mark Zuckerberg. Time, 44–75.
Han, J., & Kamber, M. (2006). Data mining: Concepts and techniques. San Francisco, CA: Elsevier.
How Powerful is a Facebook Like for Advertisers? (2012, May 17). CBS News. Available from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505268_162-57436041/how-powerful-is-a-facebook-like-for-advertisers/
Kirkpatrick, D. (2010). The Facebook effect. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Monge, P., & Contractor, N. (2003). Theories of communication networks. New York: Oxford Press.
Monge, P., Heiss, B., & Magolin, D. (2008). Communication network evolution in organizational communities. Communication Theory, 18(4), 449–477.
Most innovative companies. (2007, May 14). Business Week, 60.
New control over privacy on Facebook. (2011, August 23). New York Times. Available from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/technology/facebook-aims-to-simplify-its-privacy-settings.html
Piskorski, H. (2011, November). Social strategies that work. Harvard Business Review, 117–122.
Preston, J. (2011, February 14). Facebook officials keep quiet on its role in Revolts. Available from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/business/media/15facebook.html
Sell your friends. (2010, September 27). Bloomberg, 63–72.
Stengel, R. (2010, December 27). The 2010 person of the year. Time, 43.
Tapscott, D. (1996). The digital economy: Promise and peril in the age of networked intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Taylor, T. (2011, April 11). Facebook: A case study analysis of telecommunications and business strategy. Paper presented at the 2011 ITERA Conference, Indianapolis, IN.
Vargas, J. A. (2010, September 20). The face of Facebook. The New Yorker, 54.
Vukanovic, Z. (2011). New media business model in social and web media. Journal of Media Business Studies, (8)3, 51–67.
Weisberg, J. (2011, February 24). Tech revolutionaries. Slate. Available from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2011/02/tech_evolutionaries.html
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gershon, R.A. (2013). Facebook: A Business Perspective on the Power of Intelligent Networking and Social Media. In: Friedrichsen, M., Mühl-Benninghaus, W. (eds) Handbook of Social Media Management. Media Business and Innovation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28897-5_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28897-5_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-28896-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-28897-5
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)