Why is Facebook so Successful? - Open Secrets that are Known to Many

Facebook has come a long way to achieve its current stronghold. Since 2004 when Facebook just started, there is merely 1 million unique users. Now, the number skyrocketed to over 1.3 billion active users. If Facebook is a country, the amount of population would be tantamount to that of China's! Look at how incredibly big Facebook has grown over the years! Of course, its success is not just a fluke but one that has many learning points for us to digest.

Noticed that Facebook's main theme is blue in colour? Blue is actually the colour that gives people a calm and soothing feeling. Humans are visual creatures and what we see affects our decision-making. The colour plays an important role in instilling an impression that the website is safe, reliable and trustworthy. All these are imperative attributes that a social networking website needs to possess, afterall, social networking is about communication between people.

Like Facebook, few other social media giants like Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn also adopts a blue on blue coloured theme for their websites. Is this coincidental? Or rather are these a series of brilliantly engineered social media?

Facebook is cleverly designed in the sense that all the key features are easily accessible. The search function is right at the top, located at a very obvious position. One just needs to type in his or her name into the search box and the person's profile will pop up on the results screen. You can then peek into friend's wall and see how is he doing. There is only downside which is the difficulty in finding the right person's profile when there is so many users with similar names. There can be many people with a name 'John Greene' registered on Facebook, given the vast amount of users all around the world.

On the other hand, home button is at the top right hand corner which brings you back to the main news feed after checking out your friend's profile. In the centre is the news feed, where you can slowly scroll through the events or posts in delight. To make sure you doesn't forget your friend's birthday, Facebook place reminders at the right side of the webpage (desktop view). Surely it has saved many peoples from missing out their parents/friends' birthday parties. Wonderful feature.

In a nutshell, Facebook gives users a positive experience online, giving them an opportunity to catch up with their old and new friends with ease.

Everyone needs a venting outlet. There are times when you feel so emotional and depressed that you want to let it all out; there are times when you feel thrilled and exhilarated that you want to share the joy with your friends and loved ones. Just as you shared your current status about the new sports car you bought, your Facebook friends start to reciprocate your excitement by replying, "OMG, I WANT IT TOO!" "THAT'S THE DREAM CAR!". Doesn't that boost your self esteem and elevate your mood?

Definitely, Facebook provides one with an excellent platform to share his or her thoughts using text, pictures and other multimedia tools. The replies from the readers regardless of whether it is a positive or negative comment, shows that someone actually cares about what the person is saying. And for a bulk of people, social acceptance is very important to them. While some people may not be good at communicating with their peers face to face, they may be better at doing so on the social media.

In 2008, Faceboook announced a new feature called Facebook Connect. It made it easier for Facebook users to take their online identity with them across the world wide web, according to Zuckerberg. It allows people to create multiple accounts across different websites or application using their Facebook account as their profile. This new approach has saved many people the trouble to re enter their profile details again thus making their Facebook account the passport recognized for all uses. With this, everything sped up and generally make users happier, given the fast and efficient browsing experience.

It really shows that Facebook has better foresight than other used-to-be social networking giants and proves its capability to stay in the market for long.

Does the picture above ring a bell to you? Cookie Jam, this colorful matching game proved that the genre is far from over for Facebook. Launched last May, and rising to over 5 million players in only a matter of months, SGN’s sweets-themed title swept all others to become the Game of the Year (2014). Such games are usually very fun and enticing as it allows them to compete with their friends on Facebook, adding in an element of competitiveness. Hence, it suggests a reason for users to add more friends to join into the fun, creating a viral effect.

I had to admit that the main reason that I joined Facebook was because of its games, I was so hooked up that I eventually started using Facebook properly! Facebook games are very fun and many developers have noticed the power of using Facebook as a platform to distribute their products. True enough, with the large number of Facebook users, a substantial amount of them are playing Facebook games. As days go by, one's Facebook profile becomes their identity, when you want to get to know a person better, you can always find out more through their profile page. That's what made Facebook so strong - heavy reliance on its platform.