There was once a time when solely college students were on Facebook. Soon teenagers began to join, and before we all knew it, our parents and even our grandparents had joined. Today Facebook has surpassed individual entities, and it includes all of the largest corporations and many of the smaller ones as well.

Why, everyone wonders, has this one social networking platform been so successful? EMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna feels the success is due to the site’s diversification.

“What started out as a pure-play social network has evolved into an all-purpose destination that is beginning to replace email, instant messaging, video sharing, gaming and other activities that were otherwise scattered across unconnected venues,” Verna said in an article on eMarketer.

EMarketer estimates that 132.5 million people in the US will be users of Facebook this year; by 2013 that number will increase to 152.1 million. According to eMarketer, this growth will be driven primarily by increased Facebook use among older boomers and seniors. At the same time, teens and young adults will remain the site’s most active and engaged age groups.

The moral of the story is to apply your business to the masses, and to keep an open mind. Diversification can only help your business by bringing in clients that you never thought existed.

BrandAlley, online designer discount retailer has done just that. The company, which offers designer brands at up to a discount of 70% has recently extended its offer from purely fashion to include home, travel and beauty brands, according to Marketing Week. Melissa Littler, BrandAlley marketing director feels the diversification will benefit a larger range of customers.

“We’ve stepped back and reappraised what BrandAlley is about,” Littler said in an article on Marketing Week. “It’s more of a lifestyle choice than a fashion house so now we want our customers to reappraise how they shop with us and transcend fashion into other areas.”

According to Business Link, the positives outweigh the negatives when it comes to diversifying a company.

“While diversification can pose some risks- such as costly delays and mistakes owing to a lack of knowledge or expertise in the new area- it can also limit the impact of changes in the market,“ Business Link reports. “In simple terms, if you supply one product or service and it falls out of favor, it leaves you very exposed. If you have two or more products or services and sales of one drops, at least there will be revenue coming into the business through the other.”

To learn more about how your company can amplify its brand by appealing to potential clients through diversification techniques, visit Pennsylvania and Miami-based marketing experts The JLS Agency.