Mon 19th of July, filed under Social Media
Facebook reaches 500 million users
Social media website Facebook will be celebrating its 500 millionth user this week with the announcement of a new online promotion.
According to All Things Digital's Kara Swisher, the soon-to-be-announced Facebook Stories will invite members of the portal to share their experiences of using the site, which has become one of the most-visited on the internet since its inception in 2004.
Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook's director of marketing, told Swisher that the campaign will concentrate on the way Facebook has impacted on people's lives. She said:
As we anticipated our 500-million milestone, we wanted to find a different way to announce and celebrate it.
"In the past, it's been all about the numbers and milestones and we realized we had never taken the opportunity to celebrate users."
Facebook Stories
Swisher claims that the stories Facebook will consider from users will be short – 420 characters or less – and centre around themes such as 'finding love', 'coping with grief' and 'natural disasters'.
The anecdotes will then be posted on users' profile pages where friends can subsequently comment and 'Like' them.
Recent figures from Facebook have revealed Lady Gaga to be the most popular living person on the website.
The pop star topped 10 million followers on her profile earlier this month, edging ahead of US President Barack Obama. However, she is not the most popular personality on the site as a whole, as the late Michael Jackson has more than 14 million Facebook friends.
Posted by Michael Thornton
