Facebook Headquarters. (2016, July 11). Menlo Park, CA. Field Experience.
To further ones research and knowledge of Social Media, a trip to Facebook headquarters is definitely in order. I called the number on their website and set up a tour. As I drove past the “Facebook Like” sign at the entrance to one of the sites, there was around 5 people standing around taking pictures in front of the sign. My tour was with a newer site off of Facebook Way. The parking lot was enormous, with a series of buses exiting as I entered. Facebook has a busing system in place for employees that live farther away. As I walked inside I was intrigued by the interesting and modern architecture. Food frames line the stairs and it almost looks as if the inside is still a little under construction. However, I later found out that is simply the style. I checked in and signed a waiver of confidentiality. Everyone who enters the building signs this waiver, in order to ensure that everything going on and seen in the building remains confidential. As I walked up the stairs and into their office area, I almost felt like I was back in the college dorms. There were vending machines, funky pictures on the wall, bright rainbow colors and desks set up all over the building. I learned that most of the employee’s are in their 20’s, many straight out of college. There are very few actual conference rooms, as the layout of each office area is an open space. One of the goals of Facebook is that everything is out in the open. They want the employee’s to have nothing to hide and to be themselves and do their work in front of their coworkers. Desks were next to each other and there were no walls or dividers to give privacy. One of the employees told me that once he was hired, he gained access to all of Facebook’s information. There was nothing hidden from their employee’s. In addition, every friday Mark Zuckerberg meets with his employee’s for a Q & A session. Employee’s can bring up comments and concerns. On the rooftop, there was an entire park. The ground was dirt, with paths throughout. There were rooftop cafes, seating, gorgeous gardens and even binoculars to take in the breathtaking view of the Bay Area. It was obvious that Facebook highly values and takes care of their employees.
While visiting Facebook, I was struck by all of the money put into the facility. Then I was reminded, Facebook is a business. So many simply know Facebook as an App on the phone or a way to track pictures and what others are doing, we forget that it is an extremely successful business. At Facebook, there is a department working on advertisements. They have programs that use algorithms to track what their users are looking up and then work to create advertisements that reach each of their users as they search their feed. There are additional groups working on trending news and getting current news out there first, so that their users can have a “one stop shop” where they check their feed, get updates on their friends and search the news. Everything is done to bring in more consumers and revenue.
This experience helped me to remember that the goal of Facebook and other Social Media companies like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. are to make money. They are businesses and they go to great lengths to capitalize on their users in order to make money. Therefore, they know what teens are looking for when they go on Facebook – likes, approval, attention, and they are working on getting more and more features to meet those needs. For example, when you see a picture on your Facebook feed, you can now love it, like it, cry about it and many other options. All they do and design, is to keep their users coming back and to generate even more users. This was an incredible experience that opened my eyes to the business side of Social Media.
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