Tag: facebook mobile

Facebook sets sights on mobile technology

Facebook has become one of the world’s most used social networks and has shown aptitude in adapting to the evolution of the Internet and the advent of mobile technology. Even amid scandals concerning user security and privacy, Facebook has managed to retain its position in the world of social media. In order to continue being considered a leading social network, Facebook is having to become more mobile; accessible to those that access the network solely from a smartphone or tablet. As such, Facebook has begun reaching out to mobile developers.

Social networking is becoming increasingly mobile

Over the coming months, Facebook will be hosting a series of events that are designed with mobile developers in mind. More than half of the network’s 1 billion active users access the network through mobile devices. Facebook notes that mobile advertisements made up 23% of its advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 14% over the previous quarter of the same year. Becoming more mobile friendly holds major potential for Facebook that the network is eager to take advantage of.

Events will allow Facebook to engage mobile developers

Through its upcoming series of events, which will be held around the world in major cities like New York, London, and Seoul, Facebook will reach out to mobile developers that are interested in social media. The network will help developers make use of its software development kits in order to create innovative services that are designed to promote social interaction with Facebook users, including large businesses. The events are also a good chance for developers to get face time with Facebook leaders, giving them an opportunity to find work within the company.

Social networking becoming more competitive as consumers become more mobile

In recent years, Facebook has been losing much of its clout to rival social networks, such as Twitter and Instagram, despite the fact that the company owns the latter. The current generation of consumers appears to be more interested in mobile technology, and Twitter is one of the social media networks that is best suited for the mobile space. In order to compete, Facebook is prepared to make drastic changes to its network, putting more emphasis on mobile consumers. How this will be received by the large number of people that do not access the social network from a mobile device has yet to be seen.

The industry is now wondering if the social networking giant has finally mastered this channel.

Facebook has been the recipient of massive criticisms due to its lack of mobile marketing revenues, which had lead to its exceptionally disappointing initial public offering (IPO) stock nearly a year ago.

At that time, there were hundreds of millions of users accessing the service without ads on smartphones and tablets.

Investors were disappointed that mobile marketing had apparently been ignored by Facebook, when it could have been used to reach these millions upon millions of people, but it was not. What has since been discovered, is that the executives at the social networking giant were perfectly aware of this trend and they were already well on the way to building their strategy.

The Sponsored Stories mobile marketing social ads were only the tip of the iceberg.

That element had only just been introduced at the time of the IPO, but what the investors didn’t know at that time – and what has only recently been revealed – is that Facebook had a great deal more up its sleeves for its mobile marketing programs. It took several months, but it has now been proving itself capable of exposing ads to the smartphone and tablet using masses in compelling and effective ways. This was far beyond what most people at that time could have predicted.

The mobile marketing ads at Facebook were not an instant success, but they did gradually build traction until they were earning $305 million by the fourth quarter. This represented approximately 23 percent of the overall ad sales revenue for the company. It is also one of the main reasons that the social network stock price has nearly doubled the low to which it plummeted shortly after the IPO, hovering near the $30 mark.

One of the main reasons that the ads in the Facebook mobile marketing strategy are considered to be successful is that they aren’t the same as those that are used on the desktop site. On the standard website, the ads run along the right hand side of the page. Instead, the smartphone friendly ads are worked right into the news feed and have both a look and a feel that are comparable to the posts that are made by their friends and the other brands and pages that they have liked.