Matthew Pick is Catchfire Media’s summer intern who will be assisting with the firm’s strategic efforts on behalf of our clients.
Yesterday, Facebook reached 500 million users. Having doubled size in the past year alone, Facebook will keep growing, and continue to be the most-used social networking site. While Facebook was first created for college students to stay in touch, it eventually opened its doors to high school students and the rest of the world to stay in touch with people and organizations.
In high school, Facebook has been a way to pass time and IM friends, but I’ve realized how it will soon become something more when I ship off to college. I attended an engineering camp last week and met some new people, and I found myself “friending” them on my phone when I had free time. If I hadn’t, I know I would have forgotten their last names, and who knows, I may run into them in the future.
Facebook is still young. My older sister created an account her freshman year in college and soon connected with her high school friends that had spread across the country. How will this be different for those who have “grown up” using Facebook like me?
My parents still don’t know what Facebook really is, but that’s okay. If I can show my mom pictures from my sister’s account, that’s good enough for her! While my parents won’t be signing up for a Facebook account anytime soon, high school students will continue to seed the growing population of users on a global level.
What does this mean for the future? People will stay connected. Whether it be someone you met at camp, at school, or at work, Facebook will continue to keep us close with family and even people you just met.
My parents don’t use any form of online networking, which is becoming an exception to the rapidly spreading demographics. Facebook is no longer for students alone; parents of younger generations are using Facebook to keep in touch with their children and friends.
Before I started my internship with Catchfire Media, I honestly hadn’t used Facebook very much. I didn’t fully understand why people spent so much time on Facebook until I realized its power. A casual user may not pay attention or realize how much more is actually on Facebook than your friends. You can find anything from your favorite games, sports teams, or restaurants. With a half billion users on Facebook, it makes sense to have a company page.
From my prospective, Facebook’s presence has set the standard for social networking. The number of users will continue to grow, as will the number of business and group Pages. Every organization can benefit from a Facebook Page, and will continue to provide unique access to over 500 million consumers.
[Photo from oversocialized on Flickr / CC BY 2.0]
