The biggest social media network in the world, Facebook, recorded 1.59 billion monthly users at the end of last year. In the twelve years since it was first developed it has grown exponentially.
Most active internet users are aware of the benefit social media sites such as Facebook can bring to their business. It offers an informal, relaxed way to communicate openly with your users. For this reason it is not surprising that over the past couple of years a desire has emerged for websites that look and feel like Facebook.
The benefit of using a website reminiscent of the world's leading social networking site is that users are already familiar with how to use it. It may also work on a subconscious level, by piggybacking on the laid-back feel Facebook has been successful in achieving.
If your website feels like Facebook, then the chances are that your customer will feel comfortable there. When we feel comfortable it is likely that we will spend longer on the site, and return more often.
Read More: Learn How Social Media Activity Promotes Your Business SEO Activities
Here is a rundown of some Facebook inspired themes which you may want to check out.
Please note that some of the links provided in this article may be affiliate links and we will earn commission if you buy their products through our links.
BuddyBoss 2.0 is a theme based on BuddyPress for WordPress. BuddyPress allows you to build your own social network within the Wordpress site. Boss 2.0 is a fully customisable theme with a number of layout options. The colour scheme can be customised to your needs, or you can choose from a selection of pre-loaded schemes.
Adds-on include an option to host an E-learning platform, membership subscription, providing multi-lingual options and installing e-commerce functionality. The whole theme is retina ready to ensure that it appears to the highest standard across different devices.
Timeline WordPress theme was the first theme to launch after Facebook changed over to the timeline functionality across the site. This theme is almost a complete duplication of the Facebook interface for wordpress and can be seen in detail here .
However, this theme is soon to be discontinued so if you are interested in acquiring it, be quick, or you might miss out.
Postline from themify.me provides a very polished, sleek design. It can be operated in timeline fashion or in grid mode and displays your content in a very contemporary manner.
It is fully responsive and comes with lightbox media support. Customisation options include the headers & footers, and space to accommodate up to 4 footer widgets columns.
Cosmo Themes, the developers behind FacePress , are not afraid to make the association between their theme and its namesake. Clearly inspired by Facebook and Wordpress, Facepress presents an elegant design which is optimised for photos and other images. It is available with a white or black background.
There are four display formats to choose from. When in timeline view the main section is displayed as 'Author's Timeline' and has tabs such as 'posts', 'favourites' and 'following'. The latest posts appear along the left sidebar and the overall effect is quite striking.
Cray Themes offering of Share It comes in four different versions to allow you to choose the most appropriate option for your site. The Timeline version presents unlimited timeline variations, 5 scrolling styles and up to 30 different types of posts.
There is very little you can't do with a fully customisable option like Share It.
Also from Cray Themes comes Timeline which includes the word 'facebook' in the title of the theme, as seen below. This award winning theme comes in a light and dark colour scheme. It can accommodate a rotating banner on the header and a background slideshow.
The posts can be placed in 3 different positions, and there are a range of image customisation tools built in. It is fun, quirky and a great way to showcase a portfolio.
DW Timeline Pro, designed by Design Wall, is a clean, modern design built on the Facebook timeline design. It is multilingual ready and has functionality to allow for instant tweets. Like many of the other themes listed above it has a responsive layout to allow for optimal mobile device functionality.
This theme devised by inkthemes features a three column design on the home page. You can choose to display your post in timeline style or based on popularity. BlogSpring is developed with bloggers and those requiring a similar format to social media and magazine style sites.
When you purchase this theme it comes with a developer license which allows you to install it on as many domains and websites as you like. It is adaptable for mobile. Watch a demo of the theme in action.
