It’s no secret that Facebook is the most trafficked website online. But how did it happen? It seems to have happened just out of the blue.
Well, in business, word of mouth is the most powerful advertising in the world. Google rose to prominence largely because of word of mouth. It is the most popular search engine in the world and was the most trafficked website until Facebook took that position. These achievements were done as a result of a good product that got talked about.
That’s true of Facebook as well. But Facebook has another thing going for it, which makes it easy for that word of mouth to spread. It is by its nature a social site. Google isn’t, and never was.
For online businesses, word of mouth spreads in two ways: Online and off line. Google’s rise to prominence came about as a result of webmasters spreading the news online about the search engine’s search results. Then they told their friends off line.
Facebook took off as a matter of course when MySpace wasn’t meeting the needs of its users. Facebook had a platform that was easy to use and made hooking up with one’s friends simple for everyone. Word quickly spread through Facebook’s own network, all across the Web, and off line to users’ friends.
Word of mouth still works.
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