Agility

Facebook is fast to act, making it one of the most agile companies online, especially considering its massive size.

This agility is most often seen in reactionary circumstances. It has become a somewhat predictable pattern for Facebook to release a huge update — whether it be a feature or change to the terms of service — that passionate users react to with vocal cries of outrage. Facebook then swiftly responds with blog posts from executives and a few changes that help to pacify members.

Most recently we saw this agility in Facebook’s quick reaction to growing privacy concerns. In a matter of weeks, the company managed to drastically simplify site privacy settings that had become impossible to manage after years of modification. While the company’s speedy privacy control overhaul may not have addressed the primary concern behind the upheaval, it was an aggressive change that did quiet much of the anti-Facebook rhetoric.

For a site with nearly 500 million members, Facebook does a remarkable job at listening to user feedback and implementing changes when it deems them appropriate.

Of course, the company should be credited for more than its reactionary maneuvers. Over the years, Facebook’s user base has ballooned to astronomical proportions, and along the way the site’s done an impressive job keeping the lights on, firing off new features, experimenting, supporting businesses with Pages and releasing international versions.

This agility is all the more obvious now as Facebook remains constant while Twitter continues to buckleunder traffic pressure.