Facebook: How to Successfully Maintain a Competitive Advantage

FACEBOOK: HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY MAINTAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Name: Institutional Affiliation Facebook: How to Successfully Maintain a Competitive Advantage Introduction In consideration of this social and digital age, it is essential for organizations to initiate innovate efficient methods of ensuring they sustain their success in the market. Facebook is known for its success for hitting a $4 million this year with a market capital of $61billion. However, the success of this company is dwarfed by other search giants such as Google that lastly accrued revenue of $38 billion with a market capital of $231billion (O’Toole, 2012). This establishes the need for this company to develop approaches aimed at maintaining its competitive advantage in this current social and digital age. This paper seeks to establish Facebook’s approach in maintaining a competitive advantage in the market through the inclusion of strategic leadership, organizational culture, and innovation, change management and partnerships. Facebook’s Approach in Maintain a Competitive Advantage According to Mukerjee (2016), a competitive advantage entails an organization’s efforts aimed at establishing approaches of gaining advantage in the market over its rivals by ensuring that it offers its customers great value through the provision of innovative services, lower pricing of products among other approaches that benefit clients (pp.27). In order to meet its goals directed towards maintaining a competitive advantage, Facebook needs to develop a generic business model that could be implemented in differentiating its products in the market. These models include the inclusion of: Strategic Leadership Facebook’s approaches are primary based on a strategized approach of leadership that results to the organization’s value proposition that is implemented to establish tremendous impacts on the organization’s operations on behalf of its customers. The company managers the value proposition for its customers and users with the aim of ensuring they have a positive experience online. Facebook overruled its competitor MySpace, through a strategy that revolutionized social networking platforms (O’Toole, 2012). In 2008, MySpace was the most visited social network in the world. However, the company failed in managing the quality of its user’s experiences on its social network, thus losing its customers to Facebook. Facebook had a vision to develop a unique focus on its relationship management by enticing its users to visit its site more. The company’s approach in managing relationships resulted in many on-site visits that made customers to stay longer that they did on any other site, thus drawing the attention of several advertisers who were ready to invest on the site. Facebook therefore dominated the market by demonstrating its strategic leadership approach in the provision of quality services on its online platform that ended in a constructive user experience (Breznik & Lahovnik, 2016). The company maximized on its profits since its leader was in a position to define a strategy that would leverage on consumer desires to maintain relationships and connect with people globally. The company validates its approach that directs its efforts to maintain human relationships, thus allowing its users to build networks or relationships rather than that of information. Expansion and Acquisition Strategic acquisitions are essential sources of learning and gaining resources in achieving competitive advantage. However, few organizations do not have the capacity to compete efficiently in the dynamic landscape (Breznik & Lahovnik, 2016). In such a case, they seek the required resources through alliances. Facebook in its expansion approach established approaches aimed at making alliances that ensured the organization selected the right partners, through an approach that required the organization to make the most of its knowledge and social capital. Currently, the company has made alliances with several organizations such as FirendFeed that was acquired in 2009 for close to $48.5 million. FirendFeed was one of the largest social media aggregators that had many similar features as those of Facebook (Breznik & Lahovnik, 2016). Secondly, Facebook also acquired Instagram at a cost of $1 billion and WhatsApp at a value of $19 billion in order to expand and broaden its network. Innovation Facebook has been in a position to differentiate its products and services from its competitors over the social media platform such as Twitter. Twitter is considered as Facebook major competitor, but has never surpassed this organization in terms of innovation. In meeting the needs of its clients, Facebook initiated multiple apps and games that enable the users to interact and play, an element that Twitter does not offer (Raghav, 2011). On the other hand, Facebook offers its customers a more real personal experience as compared to Twitter through the inclusion of relationship status among other updates. Secondly, Facebook has initiated a search tool that can be used by users within the network, with this allowing consumers and different brands to get more value in its products. Facebook also promotes its different apps by running an application on the site where its customers are in a position to browse and access its offerings (Raghav, 2011). News Feeds are also developed ...