There’s no debating the fact that Facebook is “revolutionary” and that it is completely changing our world. During its rise, Facebook paved the way for many new social media networks such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. This created a whole new dimension in our society and a whole new landscape for creativity and connecting. However, while paving the way for these new tech companies and opportunities, Facebook also created a lot of competition for itself. Snapchat’s innovation to message friends, Instagram’s user friendly and pleasing feed, and Twitter’s spontaneous and trending blog-like posts all forced Facebook to evolve. Facebook now needs to find new innovative ideas and ways of pleasing the consumers, or else it may fail.
Facebook is at a point in its lifespan where they need to offer its users more than just a platform to connect with people, which leads to its new focus on becoming a tailored media outlet (Heath, 2016). Tailored media goes along with targeted advertising in which Facebook knows what you’re interested in, and will therefore show you the “new” that you will probably be interested in. This allows more users, new and old, to interact with Facebook in new ways. This also gave Facebook a slight advantage from Instagram and Snapchat, that didn’t offer any new coverage at the time (Wasserman, 2014). However, now that Snapchat has a very successful media outlet of their own, Facebook is now forced to moving onto something more innovative.
The push that Facebook is making against other major social media platforms is their “take” on Virtual Reality. With the release of Oculus Rift, Facebook is now in direct competition with Google and Samsung for VR (Larson, 2016). Mark Zuckerberg also came out last year to explain how VR immersion will become a part of social media in the future, which will be another first for the world. Facebook is the first social media company to become involved with Virtual Reality, which shows that they are in fact still the ‘top of the food chain.’ Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO and Founder, has explained to shareholders and the world that he plans on having VR become a part of our actual social media platforms. Therefore, if Facebook somehow creates a successful link between VR and social media, they will truly be way ahead of the competition.
Student Author: Sandro Pobric, University of Vermont, Business Administration 2019.
Faculty Advisor: Robert Williams Jr., University of Vermont.
References:
Heath, A. (2017, February 16). Mark Zuckerberg wrote a nearly 6,000-word letter about the future of Facebook that quotes Abe Lincoln – here are the key points. Retrieved on April 02, 2017.
Larson, S. (n.d.). Oculus’ long-term VR plans laid out by Mark Zuckerberg. Retrieved April 02, 2017.
McCracken, H. (2016, September 16). Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Bold Plan For The Future Of Facebook. Retrieved April 02, 2017.
McGoogan, C. (2016, October 07). Is this the future of Facebook? Mark Zuckerberg unveils his vision for virtual reality. Retrieved April 01, 2017.
Wasserman, T. (2014, February 04). What Facebook Will Look Like by 2024. Retrieved April 02, 2017.
