How Long Will Twitter and Facebook Be at the Top?

Nearly every individual in the U.S has a social networking account with Facebook or Twitter or knows someone that does. With so many people involved with these sites, how could they ever fail? These sites seem to have their hands in almost every facet of our lives. From cell phones to almost every major event and everything in between, we can’t help but notice their presence. How have they gotten to where they are and what things could lead to their demise? Let’s explore the reasons they are the giants and what could bring crumbling down.

The longevity of social networking sites is based on their ability to continually add value to the customers experience and offer a niche/personalization for almost any individual. The moment a site falls behind the times is when its users start shopping around for the next best thing. MySpace had that problem and lost market share drastically. When the customer is no longer satisfied, they start looking around.

If the mass social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter want to keep their customers from looking at alternatives they need to be able to know what the customer perceives as the newest and greatest feature available to them. It’s all about perception. It doesn’t really matter what the marketing department for Facebook thinks, for example. What matters is that the marketing department for Facebook uncovers what its customers perceive to be the things that add value to the experience of using Facebook.

The merger of Skype and Facebook is one of the best examples of adding value to the customer’s experience. Facebook realized that its customers probably used a video call service from another company. By making video calling available within Facebook, customers can now get both features and experiences in one place. Customers seem ecstatic about the merger which, for Facebook, means they achieved the goal of adding perceived value in the eyes of their customers.

Along the same lines of perceived value are personalization or niche offerings. With all of the groups to join, Facebook has covered almost every base imaginable. If there is a group that users want that doesn’t exist, then a user can create it. Aside from the groups to join, there are pages to “like”, games to play, and even events to attend. All of these options are Facebook’s attempt to add value to the customer and they appear, based on overall membership and numerous new groups, pages, and events, to be working.

Twitter offers the same things as Facebook in terms of letting customers choose what they want to be linked to or follow. Twitter seems to offer more access to popular people and celebrities than Facebook and celebrities seem to choose Twitter as their network of choice. Twitter even mentioned that when they were updating the site, they looked at how people were using the site and found ways to make it easier for the customer to accomplish it. Twitter followed what the customer wanted. Things that should drive the company’s goals should be whatever the customer wants. A loyal customer is a satisfied customer.

The other major sign of a networking site’s longevity is the widespread acceptance by major organizations and even some smaller entities. From professional sports leagues to Fortune 500 companies and practically every organization in between has accepted Facebook as a common place for advertising. Even small mom and pop operations have used social networking sites to gain exposure. If organizations are using these networking sites, then the sites are fulfilling their purpose, networking. MySpace wasn’t able to capture this aspect of networking with businesses the way Facebook and Twitter have, which led to their decline. Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, puts it best by saying “The speed with which a company like Facebook is able to innovate and keep things fresh is the key to survival in this space”

To recap, the longevity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter relies on their ability to adapt to changes in technology, uncover the wants of the customer, and provide the customer with what they perceive to be valuable. The acceptance of companies and organizations to join in plays a major role in the survival of networking sites as well. If sites can adhere to these three aspects, they should be able to stay at the top of the charts and continue to be the leader of the pack.


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