Introduction Facebook is a company owned by Facebook Inc. It was launched in the year 2004.

Facebook is a social networking website and was started by Mark Zuckerberg together with his college friend and his roommates. The membership of the social networking site was initially limited to the Harvard students, but then was extended to other colleges. This social networking site is the most visited site worldwide. In the current era of a dynamic and unstable environment, all companies and business houses have to take adaptive measures in order to maintain their effectiveness in the market. This goes for facebook also. The company may be very successful today, but in order to increase the growth and market share of the company and to formulate effective strategies, market analysis is very important (Raver, 2010). The expansion of the market share depends on two prime factors, one is to create new products and another is to modify or improve the existing products. In the case of facebook, its products include the various new applications that are launched and the changes that are made in the existing format. The importance of the website is increasing day by day as many marketers are using this site as a platform to market their products (Philips, 2007). Marketing Audit The first step in marketing planning process is the marketing audit. Marketing audit helps in providing an insight into the marketing activities that need to be adopted by the firm. Marketing audit involves the analysis of internal as well as the external environment of the company. The internal environment of the company includes the strengths and weaknesses of the company. The threats and opportunities constitute the external environment of the company. The market analysis helps the company to align itself with the preferences, needs and tastes of the customer.

It includes the examination of the micro and the macro environment. Marketing audit involves the examination of the periodical activities in order to develop strategies and plans to overcome problems faced by the company. Marketing audit can be done with the use of various tools. In order to examine the external environment tools that are used include; SWOT analysis, PESTAL analysis and Potters five force analyses (Raver, 2010). External Environment Business is a public affair and cannot be done in seclusion. A number of factors existing in the environment affect the working of the company. These external forces constitute the external environment of the business. External environment of the company is made up of all the external market forces that affect the working of the company. It includes the threat as well as the opportunities faced by the company (Raver, 2010). The rapid changing technology, customer needs and wants, government policies etc. are all examples of forces of external environment. In case of Facebook, which works only online the external environment constitutes of its competitors, changing customer demands, changing technology and various opportunities that are available to the company. In other words it can be said that the external environment of a company includes the following: Political environment Political environment includes all those political factors that affect the working of the company. These include; government actions, these are actions of the government that effect the business related decisions. Decisions like blocking the access of facebook across the country. This decision if taken by the government of any country will have a bearing on the company. Political environment also includes the various government policies, taxes, privatisation, support of political

ideology etc. An unstable Political environment poses many problems in front of the various business houses and forces them to make changes in the company strategies (Paul, 2010). Economic environment Economic environment means the overall nature of the economic system of the nation. It includes the income level, rate of inflation, employment level, growth rate of the country etc. All these factors affect the business related decisions of the company. In case of facebook, economic factors affect the working of the company as the main customers of the company are marketers who se facebook as a platform to market their products. If the income level of the customers fall then the marketers will probably use other cheaper marketing channels to advertise their products. An effective business anticipates the external changes taking place in the market and makes suitable adjustments in order to gain maximum output with minimum input (Witzel, 2004). Social and Cultural environment: (Lifestyles and cultural values, changing beliefs, skills, family values) The social dimension of a country determines the changing preferences and values of the society which, effect the functioning of the business. These factors determine the workers attitude, work groups, culture and the mobility of labour. The Socio-culture environment affects the code of conduct that is to be followed by the business. Other sociological factors like customs, respect for seniority, cultural heritage also have an impact on the business. Facebook adopts different approaches for different countries based on the various social and cultural factors that are prevalent in the country (Witzel, 2004). Demographic environment The demographic environment includes the analysis of various factors like the age, race, sex and occupation of the customers of the nation. Demographic factors are considered as very important

as they affect the marketing strategies of the company. In the case of facebook, the main focus of the company is on the youth of the nation. Therefore, if a country comprises of more percentage of youth in its population, then it becomes a positive factor for the company and vice-versa (Paul, 2010). Technological environment The business of a nation is largely affected by the technological advancements. The work methods, equipments, quality of goods and services produced are hugely affected by the technology used by the company. Technological environment includes the changes taking place in the areas like internet, home shopping, and computer applications. The growing tech savvy nature of individuals is also effecting the business decisions. The growing advancements in the field of IT and automation are posting challenges in front of the organisations. Facebook is entirely dependent on the use of technology and several applications that are added to the website almost every day. This mans that change in technological factors affects the company the most (Paul, 2010). Ecological Environment In the present times, awareness towards safety, protection and preservation of the environment is growing day by day. This had led the companies to change the basic businesses processes and activities and adopt a more environment friendly approach. Many companies capitalize on this concept and use it gain competitive advantage in the market. Customers are also increasingly using the eco friendly products and supporting eco friendly companies. Facebook has its entire operations based on the internet and thus support the concept of save paper (Paul, 2010). Competitive Environment In order to analyse the competitive environment of a company the help of Potters five force model can be taken. Potters five force model is an effective analysis tool that is used by the marketers to

measure the attractiveness of the social networking websites. Its main focus remains on five basic areas, threat of new entrants, for example the various new sites like twitter, orkut etc. threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers and the bargaining power of customers. Seeing the success of facebook many other social networking sites have also tried to come up but none of them have been able to give competition to facebook (Daft, R. & Marcic, 2010). The Market Environment The market environment refers to the factors like the market size, growth, trends, customers and industry practices. Even a slight change in the market forces causes a change on the business decisions. If the market is stagnant then the companies targeting that market will get affected and will adjust themselves according to the market changes. The changing trends of consumer tastes and preferences also lead the company into changing its products according to the requirement of the customers. Facebook keeps adding new applications in its website like the Timeless profile, the latest addition to facebook (Witzel, 2004). Internal Audit The internal audit of a company means, the study of strengths and weaknesses of the business. The strengths of company are those resources and capabilities of the company that can be used for developing an advantage over the other companies. These strengths of Facebook Inc. include Effective communication, loyal customers, innovation market share leadership etc. Facebook being the market leader enjoys the above mentioned strengths, but along with that the company also faces certain internal weaknesses. These are, it is harder to customize, the advertisements shown on the sides of the page are distracting, and it is hard to understand in the first look. The internal audit of the company also includes the study of internal costs, the possible marketing mix that is to be adopted, the profits and expenses incurred by the company (Daft, R. &
Marcic, 2010).

Conclusion To establish a better control on the situations arising in the organisations, marketing audit is very essential. Marketing audit plays a role of control management in the organisation. It exposes the various internal and external factors impacting the business so that adaptive measures could be taken by the company. Audit also helps in improving the operational efficiency of the organisation. The auditing controls enable the company to evaluate the various activities of the business and to take any corrective measures if needed (Paul, 2010).

References Paul, J. (2010). Buss. Environment. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Raver, P. (2010). How to Approach the "Base of the Pyramid": A Business-strategy and Country Analysis for an EBook Reader. GRIN Verlag. Daft, R. & Marcic, D. (2010).Understanding Management. Cengage Learning. Philips, S. (2007). A brief History of Facebook. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia. Dale, E. (1969). Management: Theory and Practice. Rex Bookstore, Inc.
Witzel, M. (2004). Management: The Basics. Routledge. Taylor, F. (2008).The Principles of Scientific Management. Digireads.com Publishing. Facebook. (2012). Retrieved April, 4, 2012, from

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html.