It is not hard to argue that Facebook has changed the world. In just more than 10 years, the digital company has completely integrated itself into society in ways that few could have ever imagined. Supporting over 1.4 billion users, Facebook looms large in the lives of individuals and businesses alike, and as a customer engagement platform, it has few peers.
Today, Facebook is more than just a social media site or a single blue logo. After acquiring and launching platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, Facebook sees itself as an entire brand of mobile apps and services. At its core, Facebook is in the relationship building business. And with a reach that captures an astounding 26% percent of all the time the U.S. collectively spends on mobile devices, it presents near infinite possibilities for customer engagement marketers looking to connect with a wider audience.
Facebook is making it possible to reach incredible volumes of potential consumers, but it is also now allowing brands to create the meaningful connections that are so crucial for effective customer engagement. 
“We are playing a pretty meaningful role in people’s lives and want to do more of that,” said Blake Chandlee, Global Vice President of the Facebook GMS Partnership Team. “Mark Zuckerberg talks about how two-thirds of the world is still not connected, and that is just not acceptable. If we are going to meet the core mission of our objective, we are going to have to connect the rest of the world. We’ve only just begun.”
Chandlee, an eight-year veteran of Facebook, spoke on stage at the recent IBM Amplify 2015 conference in San Diego, where he offered unique perspective about where the brand is going. Since the theme of the entire conference focused on the future of customer engagement, the audience was particularly interested in hearing Chandlee’s reflections on consumer behavior.
Interestingly, he noted that even though more people are spending more time with mobile devices and on computers, that does not necessarily mean they are happy about it. As technological advancement progresses rapidly, the world becomes increasingly complicated. Therefore, Facebook is trying to focus more on what matters most to people and that is personal relationships.
“Technology can be confusing,” Chandlee said. “So Facebook is going back to a core value proposition that centers around people. We are trying move away from a world of cookies and probabilistic targeting and modeling and things like that to actually interact with people.”
This may be great for users, but Facebook is also taking a similar approach to help the brands that also want more meaningful interactions. Around 40 million businesses currently have a presence on the site, and 2 million attempt to connect with users through advertising. Ultimately, Facebook wants the messages consumers see from brands to be indistinguishable from those they see from friends. The goal is to move away from interruptive marketing completely, and toward a model that is more complementary.
For brands, this is where Facebook is making the most exciting strides.
“We are focusing a lot on what we call business impact,” Chandlee said. “Before I came to Facebook eight years ago, I worked at a number of start-ups and we spent a lot of time talking about clicks and eyeballs and CMPs and things like that. But we are now focused on driving real business outcomes, and making sure that we understand consumers, so that we can actually deliver the right message, at the right time, and at the right place.”
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.