Why Facebook Marketplace Puts Craigslist to Shame

While Facebook lagged behind the MySpace frenzy this past year, a fresh take on local classified promotions may just let it capture a new market. Craigslist has given us a fair share of free online classified advertising, but Facebook offers a new way to navigate through the world's warehouse of goods, people, and listings. The Facebook Marketplace recently launched to allow users of the site some key advantages; from personalized listings organization, customized search, and publishing an ad only on a specific network, Facebook has created a new way to get those goods out of your hands!

Facebook Marketplace is accessible through the sidebar on the Facebook mainframe, providing a simple listing of categories. You can choose to 'Add a new listing' or 'list things you want.' Customizing a search in this way makes it easy to track down exactly what you want; think of it as a specialized search engine that helps you manage and organize each category during the process. Sure, you can do this with Craigslist by copying and pasting your favorite links or taking notes. But Facebook makes the steps that much easier; you can select a listing and plop it into your own designated category.

If you're listing something for sale on Facebook Marketplace, just select the main category and sub-categories, choose where to list from the networks available to you, and add photos. One of the key features of Facebook Marketplace is setting up private listings; for example, if you wanted to make your Stevie Wonder CD collection available to your personal network, select a privacy setting that only lets members in your network see the listing. (The Chia pet collection can be made available to the public without your social network's knowledge).

When you need a bartender for a party, a hiring hand for your next apartment move, or just a ride across town with a friend, it's easy to post a listing under a unique category and blast the request out to your friends in the network. No more questionable Craigslist strangers to worry about! Looking for a job? Want to find out which of your friends might need your old iPod? It's easy to send out a listing without pushing or 'selling' anything; Facebook Marketplace is a simple way to create a local listing, without the hassle of filtering out questionable responses or leads from Craigslist.

Now that Facebook has opened itself up to businesses and advertisers as well, it's steadily penetrating the social networking dimension on the level of MySpace. Contending with Craigslist won't be easy, but the Facebook Marketplace has a strong chance of success with its specialized search options and easy list-creation processes.

Go ahead, post your roommate's disco ball up for sale. . .they'll never even know.