What you can learn from Facebooks success

As Facebook marks its 8th birthday with a stock market flotation you can only be amazed at how popular and successful it has become. It has over 800 million users and the range of users spans all ages, backgrounds and social profiles – it’s seem like everyone is on Facebook!

So if you are a budding entrepreneur and want to create your own online network or maybe just your own business website or application what can you learn from Facebooks success? This article from the BBC technology site gives a few insights.

Start small

Facebook originally started off as just being available to people linked to Harvard and belonging to work or educational networks. By confining itself to a small community of people Facebook was able to concentrate on what they needed without having to cater to a hundred different (maybe conflicting) interests. Focusing on one niche or segment is always good because it helps you to identify your market and their needs.

Keep things simple

I’ve read many articles online which have claimed how there have been many social networks with much more advanced features when compared to Facebook. Some, such as MySpace, offered more flexibility, others had features which are relatively new to Facebook. But the benefit of keeping things simple is you only have what users will actually use. All the frills and ribbons are nice, but do they really add value for all your customers? If you’re just starting out, focusing on what really matters is a very good way of saving time, money and improving productivity. [For more on this check out this brilliant read 'Getting Real' from the guys at 37 Signals.]

Make it easy

For Facebook, sharing is made easy, and that’s what [it's claimed] keeps people coming back: being able to shares news, images, videos, stories etc. What you need to do is focus on what your customers will be looking for when they come to your site or application and make it easy for them to be able to do just that. Once again, going back to the point above about keeping things simple, don’t overdo it – just make it easy.

Always improve your product

Facebook has constantly innovated and updated its service since launch and this is actually something which you’ll find with many online applications. When you’re starting out and especially if you’re a one-man show it’s hard to constantly innovate your product as you need time to do the other stuff (promote, sell, customer service etc). But having an idea of when to improve your product and take it to the next step is the first step in providing an innovative service or product.

Work hard and the rest is up to luck

A bit like the meaning of Nintendo, Facebook, like all other behemoths are as much the product of luck as they are of hard work and creativity. For your own work, it’s always worth noting that you will have to work hard to make it a success but good planning will always help you stay on the right track.