We’re in the final quarter of 2014, which means there are less than 90 days until the New Year and the celebration of a new year on its way. 2014 has been yet another banner year for social media, digital marketing, and the era of curation as the companies surrounding the trend make waves. For the next 10 weeks, we’ll be counting down the events of the year and looking at how each of these events presents a key and critical takeaway for what matters in marketing, and more. Today we start with #10, Facebook’s evolution into a media company. 

Many of us remember when Google burst onto the scene as the go-to search engine. In a crowded market it was an amazing feat, and a good one since internet users were becoming increasingly frustrated with having to compare between Yahoo!, Metacrawler, Lycos, and the mishmash of search engines that existed. For a number of years after, the public knew Google as the go-to search engine, with the lexicon “Google it” being placed into the vernacular, urging people to use Google to search for what they needed most. In 2008 with the smartphone wars heating up, Google decided to change, and on came the development of Android as an operating system. In the years since, we’ve also seen Google start ventures in entrepreneurship, local reviews, wearables, laptops, browsers, operating systems, and much, much more. While the core of the business still lies in search, there is a whole heck of a lot more going on.

In a similar vein, Facebook started out as the social network we all knew and from time to time, also loved. Conceived in the dorm room of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook became the social network that everyone used to announce their marriage, reunite with their long lost love, and try to influence others with their political beliefs. When the company finally went public in, it was the signaling of a new era that social media could go public and change the way we see the world. While it’s become increasingly more difficult to use Facebook, the platform itself is generally accepted as a social media company.

Then Facebook acquired virtual reality gaming company Oculus Rift.

The Evolution of Business

As businesses expand, they tend to take on new things. For example, we also never thought Google would get into social media until Google decided to start Google+ and create an alternative to Facebook. We’ll ignore how the platform has done, but for factual sake, most companies do this. Think Microsoft and tablets, HP and smartphones, and so forth.

The expansion of Facebook through the acquisition of Oculus means that the company is moving towards the direction of media, in addition to what they have developed in social. This is important because it sets up a battle in Silicon Valley and the world for companies that not only specialize in their initial area but also in what they are doing down the line. Writing a Facebook status on your virtual reality headset is still a few years away and may not necessarily be what Facebook is aiming for, but the fact that they want to create more shareable experiences with the things around in your life – beyond your cell phone and laptop, signals too, the beginning of the era of things being at the center of content, as opposed to simply people.

The Curatti Takeaway 

As a small and medium size business owner Facebook’s acquisition doesn’t really mean much. Unless you’re in the virtual reality business yourself, how Facebook will integrate devices like virtual reality machines into the social media experience might not matter from a business point of view. Nonetheless like any technology that comes out of Silicon Valley, this one will be something to watch in 2015 and beyond, as things become part of the curated brand story, and are part of the story itself. Stay tuned!

 

Images: Copyright: http://www.123rf.com/profile_alphaspirit‘>alphaspirit / 123RF Stock Photo

http://www.nectarmedia.co/a-peek-at-facebook-business-page-changes/

We’ll be featuring a top 10 for the next 10 weeks to the end of the year as we count down the top events of the year. Check back in for updates.