Facebook.com
介紹
早期發展和基本目標
當我們談到成功的社群網站時，心裡就會想到 Facebook.com。近期報告指出
Facebook 的帳號在 2010 年 7 月已超過 5 億，換句話說，地球上每 13 個人就有
一個人在使用 Facebook。
Mark Zuckerberg 在 2004 年 2 月創立 Facebook 時，年僅 19 歲，還在哈佛大學就
讀。他一開始的想法是要跟同學保持聯繫，但她從未想到這個想法會寫下社交網
絡全新的一頁。
“Facebook 101：Ten Things You Need to Know About Facebook”
1. Who Is Using Facebook?
Since its inception in February 2004, Facebook has grown significantly, and it now has
more than 60 million active users. In comparison, MySpace has a total of 300 million
users, although not all are active (“active” users are those who have logged in within
the last 30 days). According to Facebook’s statistics page, the number of active users
has doubled every 6 months, with 250,000 new users joining each day since January
2007 for an average of 3% growth per week. According to internet-ranking company
comScore, Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked site in the U.S., with the average user
spending 20 minutes a day actively using Facebook by uploading photos, sending
messages, or even having discussions within a group. The highly coveted
demographic (from 18 to 25 years old) is 52% of Facebook’s userbase, averaging 30
to 45 minutes each day on the site.
2. What Can You Find on Facebook?
Simply put, if people have an interest, it is part of Facebook. A user just has to enter a
topic, such as “video games” or “new technology,” into the search box and then hit
the “search” button. Up to 1,000 profiles are displayed, 20 at a time, starting with
people in the user’s network. If a user who belongs to the University of North
Carolina (UNC) network is searching for basketball fans, the results returned would
be people in the UNC network first, followed by those in other networks.
From that point, a user can contact others by clicking “send message” or, if that user
has a group, by clicking on the “invite to group” button. The user will see an
increased number of members joining and participating in the group’s message
board discussions.
Facebook also has a “poke” feature, which, in most circles, is regarded as a form of
online flirtation, comparable to match.com’s “winks.” When one user is poked by
another, a notification appears on the user’s homepage, allowing him or her to either
“poke back” the other user or “hide poke,” which makes the poke disappear.
3. Why Are People Using Facebook?
For one thing, it’s an easy icebreaker. Imagine an incoming freshman at a large
university who is into electronic gaming, specifically Halo, a popular
first-person-shooter game for the Xbox. In an attempt to find people who like the
same game, the student logs into Facebook and enters “Halo” in the search box.
Facebook then returns up to 1,000 users at the freshman’s university who have Halo
listed in their interests sections. He can send messages to the people whose profiles
came up during the search and set up a giant Halo game from his computer on
move-in day. The freshman has found his niche, and he can concentrate on seeing
who his competition is for the Halo crown as well.
Certain people join Facebook just to have their own place to upload photos so they
can share them with friends and family. Other users, like Colin McEvoy, an avid movie
buff, log in to check on user-submitted movie reviews. “I have friends like me who
are real movie geeks,” McEvoy says. “I can check what they have to say about a film.
It’s quicker than reading a full-blown movie review. You can compile your own ratings
so you can compare and contrast them with others. I like it because I can see if there
are any films I might like that I haven’t watched yet.”
4. What Kinds of Third-Party Programs Can You Add?
According to the Facebook Developers website (http://developers.facebook.com),
the software development kit (SDK) allows users to create programs and post them
on Facebook. Developers can create “applications that deeply integrate into a user’s
Facebook experience.” In technical terms, “the Facebook API uses a REST-based
interface. This means that our Facebook method calls are made over the internet by
sending HTTP GET or POST requests to our REST server. With the API, you can add
social context to your application by utilizing profile, friend, photo, and event data.”
From Java-based Tetris Clones to the Flixster-based “Movies” application that
enables users to look at movies and share their reviews with others, there’s a long list
of application titles to choose from (there are more than 10,000 applications, with
100 more being added each day), and there’s no limit to the amount of third-party
programs a user can add.
“I chose the apps that correlate with my own hobbies,” says McEvoy. “It’s like
there’s a bunch of vampire and zombie apps that I get asked to add each time I login,
but I’m into movies, I’m into books, so I can pick and choose the ones I want and
ignore the ones I don’t.”
McEvoy echoes the sentiment of most of the Facebook community, noting that
although there’s a large collection of applications to add to a user’s profile, only
certain applications will pique an individual’s interest enough to add it to his or her
profile.
5. What Are Advertisers Doing There?
Joseph Caviston, founder of Burnt Carbon Productions (a music label that signs local
up-and-coming bands in the northeast Pennsylvania area), says that using Facebook
to advertise is invaluable. “As a promo tool, it’s great,” Caviston says. “Say a band’s
going to a venue they’ve never played at before. Using Facebook, I can just type in
the name of a band that’s similar to the one I’m promoting and get a larger base to
send materials to.”
Although Burnt Carbon Productions also has a MySpace page, Caviston pre-fers
Facebook. “I like Facebook for promoting more than MySpace,” he says. “It’s a lot
more user-friendly; I can target my exact audience in colleges and towns near where
my bands are playing.”
“Before the bands I have signed [up] go on tour, I take out an ad in each of the cities
they’re visiting, and it helps out quite a bit [with audience turnout],” he says. “You
can’t touch it because you can target the exact audience you need.”
6. Who Else Is Joining the Facebook Network?
More than half of Facebook users are no longer in college, while users 25 and older
are now the fastest growing demographic for the social networking site. Although
most of the users in this age group have graduated from college, they are still active
on the site. East Stroudsburg University senior Matt Haley, founder of Pandemic
Hosting, a web-hosting startup, says that he’s targeting the 25-and-older crowd when
he buys ads on Facebook. “Facebook targets tech-savvy people,” he says. “I know
that some of the people in my target will be looking to create their own website for
one reason or another. Some want to open a business, while others just want a site
for their resume.”
By tapping into this demographic, Haley says he wants to get his name tossed into
the web-hosting fray, adding that although Pandemic Hosting is a small enterprise,
“all it takes is impressing a few people, and it’ll expand from there.”
Graduates also use Facebook to keep in touch, often using the Groups tool to invite
former roommates and friends to upcoming events, such as engagement parties and
baby showers.
With the 2008 presidential elections on the horizon, many political figures, most
notably Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, and Ron Paul, have set up Facebook pages to
spark more interest in their bids for the White House.
[At press time, Rudy Giuliani had dropped out of the race. —Ed.]
Upon adding a candidate to the “politicians you support” section on a personal page,
a user can now enter into discussions on the politician’s message board where
candidates often write and spark conversations with their supporters on a variety of
issues from healthcare reform to ending the war in Iraq.
7. What Groups Are Now on Facebook?
There are countless groups on Facebook, which run the gamut from political groups
(Newsvine’s Election ’08) to current events (Americans for Alternative Energy) to
self-proclaimed pointless groups (The Largest Facebook Group Ever).
Within the groups, users are free to post photos and write on the group’s “wall,” (a
type of forum) to speak with others who share their interests. Political groups and
“just-for-fun” groups are not the only options, however. There are a number of
Facebook groups for professional organizations, such as the Library 2.0 Interest
Group, while Media 2.0 and the American Library Association (ALA) also have groups.
8. Why Is Facebook So Popular for Sharing Photos?
Uploading photos is a cinch thanks to Facebook’s easy-to-use interface. The
browser-based program shows a grid of thumbnail-sized pictures while the user
clicks a checkbox on the photos he or she wants to upload.
According to comScore, Facebook is the No. 1 photo sharing application on the web,
with more than 14 million photos uploaded daily. In comparison, Flickr, the No. 2
photo sharing application, averages 3 million to 5 million uploads a day.
9. How Do You Find Old Friends and New Colleagues?
By using Facebook’s search feature, a user just needs to type someone’s name and
four options (send message, poke, view friends, and add to friends) will appear next
to a small thumbnail picture of the person.
If the person shares a network with the user and allows nonfriends to see his or her
profile (see the section on privacy settings below), a user can click on the thumbnail
picture, which brings up relevant data about the person, such as education
information, musical tastes, and favorite TV shows, among others.
A user can also search for people from any network simply by typing a portion of the
network’s name in the search field then clicking on the relevant network, which
works well if an old acquaintance has a common name.
10. What About Privacy?
Facebook allows users to control their thumbnail views, which is shown when
another user searches based on name or keyword. Everyone can use Facebook’s
privacy settings to control who can see his or her full profile. If a user is in a network
and another person’s profile is public, he or she can click on the thumbnail picture to
view the profile. Likewise, if the profile options are set to private, the user must be
“friends” with the second party to view the profile. There is also an option to show
only a limited profile, which is user-defined by the privacy settings.
Setting up a Facebook page is easy. All a potential user needs is an email address. If
the address is tied to a college, the user will be entered into his or her college’s
network. For example, East Strouds-burg University (ESU) students will be placed in
the ESU network based on the @esu.edu suffix.
If the address is not tied to a network, the user must decide which network to join
after reviewing a short selection process. Filling in personal and educational data is
not required, but it will give the page a better feel, especially since the user can click
on his or her listed interests to view other users’ profiles that have the same interests
listed on their homepages.
Once those steps are completed, new users can join groups, read and post in
discussion forums, and add third-party programs to their sites.
Mark Logic, Inc. recently joined Facebook with its Kick It application, according to
Dave Kellogg, president and CEO. “We launched it because we saw an opportunity to
build a nice, simple example of the power of XQuery and XML search,” he says. But
the app was created quite by accident (who said “Necessity is the mother of
invention”?) by David Amusin, a new staffer at Mark Logic and a recent engineering
graduate from the University of California–Berkeley. Amusin had an extra ticket to
see the Dave Matthews Band and wanted to find a friend to invite to the concert.
Facebook’s existing search wasn’t very helpful in searching for friends by interest
category, so Amusin built the Kick It (aka “hang out”) app with the Facebook API. The
result was a new way to help find people to “kick it” with and learn more about their
friends.
Kellogg reports that bloggers who have found the “neat little app” have responded
quite positively to it. But the company isn’t making a big push to drive traffic and
doesn’t plan on making money on it. “In the midterm, I think more and more
publishers are going to want to link with the social graph and associated information
in building their products,” says Kellogg. “They will want to use content platforms
that show demonstrable Facebook integration and to work with suppliers who
understand how to leverage the Facebook API.”
這篇文章說明 Facebook 為什麼大受歡迎，作者 Thomas Krivak 指出 Facebook 為
登陸的使用者提供許多服務，包括分享照片、社群討論、遊戲，以及聯繫興趣相
似的人。Krivak 也認為，人們這麼喜愛 Facebook 主要有兩個理由：
1.他建立了全新的環境，讓網路使用者透過方便快速的途徑與他人接觸。作者寫
了一個廣大校園裡的大學新鮮人如何使用 Facebook 的例子，他很喜歡電子遊戲，
特別是 Halo，一種 Xbox 中受到熱烈討論的單人射擊遊戲。這個新生可以簡單地
登入 Facebook 尋找同樣喜歡這款遊戲的人。他在搜尋方框裡打入 Halo，結果顯
示在他就讀的學校裡有一千多個使用者的興趣也包刮完 Halo。這個學生可以傳
送訊息給這些人，就在他搬進學校的那天，從他的電腦設立一個大規模的 Halo
遊戲。這個新鮮人安置好自己的基地，於是可以專心地找出誰也在 Halo 的遊戲
中爭奪勝利。
2.Facebook 的使用者很喜歡使用空間和簡單介面來分享照片。如果使用者想上傳
照片，他們只要勾選想上船的照片。這個程式由網路的瀏覽器運作，便利的格狀
設計把 Facebook 推上網路分享照片的第一名。此外，每日上傳照片的內容量，
是最大競爭對手的兩倍。除了上傳照片，使用者甚至可以留言以及跟其他人討論，
或是觀看一些他們喜歡但還沒看的電影。
更多公司有 Facebook 網頁以提高曝光量和促銷
Scoot Cooley 每天會上好幾次 Facebook，每一次都超過 20 分鐘。他認為每個融
資服務和信貸員都需要有自己的 Facebook 粉絲頁來做生意。Facebook 就像是感
冒病毒，可以在很短的時間內傳播到大量的人身上，因此他對仲介業的影響不容
忽視。有了 Facebook，公司可以吸引更多的客戶並維持他們的關係，他也可以
代替目前的電子行銷通訊。
全球領導品牌像是寶僑和聯合利華，已經因為 Facebook 的社交網絡能力，而將
之列在行銷計畫之中。然而一位數位廣告的董事長對於將 Facebook 視為行銷工
具有些疑慮，他將研發辦公室設置在加州、靠近 Facebook 總部的 Palo Alto，共
同致力於開發適用於數位和社交媒體的應用程式。碳酸飲料製造業的巨頭－可口
可樂公司利用它活動網站上的數位行銷資源，透過 Facebook 的網頁跟消費者維
持長期關係。
越來越多企業透過 Facebook 廣告和促銷的一個主要理由是，現有使用者的推薦
讓這樣的網絡更值得信賴。就像 Scoot 所說，因為這種社會化的特性，你可以花
很少預算就將廣告從你的朋友傳到他們的朋友。為了說明這點，讓我們假設一個
公司擁有 500 個 Facebook 粉絲，其中每個各有至少 100 個朋友。如此一來，你
就有 5 萬個(500*100=50000)可能的顧客。消費者間有種越來越強的趨勢是在想
買某種特別的產品或服務時，他們首先會搜尋相關消息，像是一般評論和其他使
用者的經驗。換句話說，現今的消費者對於朋友的信賴程度高過不認識的商人。
因此，如果公司有 Facebook 粉絲頁，這不僅是讓公司有機會接觸目標消費者，
網頁上使用者滿意的回應還會提高消費者對公司產品或服務的信心。
拿 IKEA 為例，這間家具企業利用 Facebook 最受歡迎的功能－照片貼標籤，為新
開在瑞典 Malmo 的店面打廣告。店經理申請了 Facebook 網頁，上傳 IKEA 展示間
的照片。接著店家舉辦活動，吸引更多使用者來瀏覽這格網頁。他們辦了一個競
賽，第一個在照片的品項貼上自己名字標籤的 Facebook「粉絲」，就能贏得那項
家具。由於 Facebook 被公司和廣告商大量地使用，因此各商家應該也要想想新
鮮、有創意的方法，發揮社交網絡的內部功能來找出潛在顧客。
如何利用 Facebook 來促銷你的事業並得到好結果
Bill Tancer 自稱為「資料狂熱分子」
。他曾就 1000 以上的網路使用者研究搜尋模
式，得到的結論是若要傳給 5000 萬使用者，收音機要花 38 年、電視 13 年、網
路 4 年，以及 iPod 的 3 年。然而公司如何成功使用 Facebook 促銷生意呢？這裡
有幾個秘訣可以遵循：
1. 定義你的 Facebook 粉絲頁的目的
就像是傳統的企業經營，在界定行銷目標和發展支援策略之前，你應該仔細思考
你想提供什麼以及增加收益的方法。設計網頁的內容時，就應該配合策略並未成
功設定明確的調性。
2. 利用「頁籤」功能
在你為生意建立 Facebook 網頁時，你會看到網頁的配置有預設的「頁籤」設定，
包括「塗鴉牆」可公布消息和留言，以及「資訊」可介紹關於你公司的訊息。你
可以增加頁籤連結到其他特定內容的 Facebook 頁面以擴展功能。此外，你可以
「編輯」原始頁籤的順序，以你想要的方式安排某些頁籤
3. 仔細管理你的網頁
你可以在你的頁面放上文章或照片，如果觀看者覺得這些很新鮮、有趣或有用，
他們就有可能成為你網頁的粉絲。不過，一定要特別注意貼文的品質，好讓你的
粉絲一直想要來造訪和閱讀你的網頁。你也可以記訊息或新聞給對你的網頁按
「讚」的人。但如果有太多瑣碎的貼文，追蹤者仍會選擇「隱藏」你的網頁更新。
因此，最好只在你想寄送真正重要的訊息給粉絲時才使用這個技巧。通常，你的
網頁會在塗鴉牆上收到留言和消息，網頁的管理者要能適時回覆這些留言。
4. 讓你的廣告好玩有趣
誠如先前所提，你可以利用 Facebook 的付費廣告，根據他們的個人資料來與目
標使用者接觸。根據一般或特定的標準，你可以依據年齡、社群、性別、居住地，
或特定興趣來選擇誰能看見這些廣告。為了提升廣告效應並達到更好的促銷效果，
你可以在廣告中加入某些形式的競賽或粉絲活動。
確實有其他方法讓你的 Facebook 粉絲頁更能觸及到你的粉絲和追蹤者。你要做
的就是注意他們的需要，並試著讓自己能提供的是最好的東西。如果他們對你的
東西滿意，他們的正向留言最後一定能幫你提高業績。
你的 Facebook 粉絲頁本質上就是網站，所以你可能問，一個公司如果已經有了
自己的網站，是否還需要 Facebook 的粉絲頁。答案是「需要」
，因為兩種網站的
重點並不相同。Facebook 的目的是找出潛在顧客並能夠藉由訊息接觸他們，還
有最重要的是與他們建立聯繫。公司的網站可用來公布最新而且最多樣、豐富的
內容。換句話說，公司應該將 Facebook 視為一種行銷工具，利用這種社群網站
的潛在力量而不是像在公司網站上放更多行銷相關內容。
如何拿捏資訊和個人隱私的界線
讓 Facebook 成功的是他讓使用者控制自己的訊息和觀點。你可以將你的
Facebook 資料設為「公開」，代表任何人都可以看，或你可以設定為「私人」，
只有「朋友」能夠知道你的資料。
在此浮現了一個兩難：因為 Facebook 有這麼多使用者而且數字還在一直攀升，
所以公司和廣告商都視 Facebook 為向目標讀者群推銷的有效途徑。他們設立
Facebook 粉絲頁，或要求員工開立 Facebook 個人網頁以促銷公司產品或服務。
然而因為使用者可以控制她們公布的資訊，所以讓廣告商對於將自己的資訊社為
隱私的使用者不得其門而入。因此 Facebook 的兩難是在「為自己創造更多利益」
和「滿足使用者對隱私的需求」之間做出選擇。
問題
1. Facebook 面對的不只一般消費者，主要對象是商業用戶，Facebook 販售什麼？
從什麼角度看顧客在哪？
從文中可發現可以透過 Facebook 的付費廣告，得到對商業用戶有用的資訊，
Facebook 根據年齡、社群、性別、居住地或特定興趣等個人資料分析誰能看
見廣告，因此 Facebook 主要販售的是隱私權
2. 商人預算有限，要如何使 Facebook 在其他社群網站中脫穎而出？
由於現有使用者的推薦讓這樣的網絡更值得信賴與現今的消費者對於朋友的
信賴程度高過不認識的商人，這樣的社會化特性，使得公司可以透過花費較
少的預算就可以將廣告傳達到多數人手中，Facebook 具有這樣的能力與魅力
使得商人願意使用 Facebook 來達到效益