Overview
Facebook was famously started by Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004. Initially limited to Harvard students, the website quickly spread to other colleges, and was opened to the public in 2006. Since then, Facebook has become the giant of social media, purchasing rival Instagram in 2012, WhatsApp in 2014. Despite scandals surrounding the company's culpability for Russian influence over the 2016 US Presidential election and the privacy of user data, Facebook remains one of the world's most powerful companies, and the dominant social media platform, with over 2.8 billion worldwide users as of 2021.
Strengths & Weaknesses
One of the most powerful aspects of Facebook is the breadth of content that is available within the social network. Facebook offers text posts, photos and videos, news, live streaming, buying and selling, direct messaging, events, private and public groups and more. Of course this strength can also be a weakness - Facebook can be intimidating and difficult to use to its fullest. The ultimate strength of Facebook is its ubiquity and reach - if you want to connect with people on social media, you almost certainly need a Facebook presence.
Recommendations
If your organization wants to have a Facebook presence, it is important to understand the difference between a “profile,” a “page,” and a “group” - they each have different requirements and features. Both can be useful, but a group both offers greater opportunities for building community - group members can communicate more easily with each other, for example - but likely will require more moderation.Additionally, be sure to keep your Facebook page up to date with your hours, closures, events, etc., as many folks will check your Facebook page before your website.
What can we learn?
One way that Facebook has failed its users is by failing to protect their private data adequately, and libraries should be cautious about how they provide and share information via social media to avoid data breaches. Generally, this comes fairly naturally to libraries, which are notoriously strong protectors of privacy.