As an agency specialising in digital marketing in Surrey, Thunderbolt Digital like to keep our ear to the ground when it comes to news regarding social media platforms, especially when it comes to how well they’re performing.
Facebook is a social media giant. Only 15 years ago it was unheard of, but you’d be hard pressed to find a person alive in the connected world who didn’t know of it, even if they’re not an active user. Facing increasing criticism about their practices and following accusations that they are quickly becoming a monopoly, some believe that it is only a matter of time before Facebook reaches critical mass and subsequently collapses, and 2018 seemed as good a time as any for that to happen. But, it didn’t.
Facebook faced probably its worst year to date for scandals, yet has also managed to achieve record profits for 2018 too. User numbers are up from last year too, despite negative press with impressive numbers of daily and monthly users, even in regions where they had previously declined or plateaued.
There was genuine fear that scandal would drive away users, and ad revenue with them – but this has proven to not be the case, perhaps proving the old adage ”There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. In fact, one has to wonder if all this profit is in spite of all the scandal, or could this increased notoriety somewhat be helping Facebook?
After all, Facebook is now thought to be for “old people who don’t understand Twitter” and teens and young people see the platform as “uncool” due to family ties and notorious minion memes posted by the middle aged.
But despite this, Facebook’s business success seems unaffected by public reputation, which only seems to decline more each year. Scandals aside, the social media giant has continued to provide a convenient service, and also received income from other associated apps including Instagram and WhatsApp, which the company reportedly plans to merge in future.
So, what does this all mean? It means that companies should definitely hang on to Facebook as long as it continues to be viable, and make use of features such as chatbots, advertising, and post boosting – we here at Thunderbolt Digital certainly will continue to use it as a platform to market online, but it pays to keep an eye on things, and be ready to transfer to other sites if need be.