Technology / Internet
Facebook engagement fell by almost half in 6-month period - Poll
08 Jun 2012 at 03:58hrs | Views
A poll released this week by Reuters and Ispos Public Affairs found that just 2 out of 5 Facebook users were signing into their profile every day - which is down from 1 out of 2 who visited every day six months ago. The poll also found that 34 percent of users surveyed were spending less time on the site, with only 20 percent saying they were spending more.
The poll was conducted online between May 31-June 4, with 1,032 American participants. Twenty-one percent of participants said they have no Facebook account.
The news about user engagement comes months after the site switched to a "Timeline" form and just days after the company's bungled IPO.
"Facebook continuously has the challenge of Facebook fatigue, of the novelty factor wearing off, and therefore they have to introduce new kinds of interaction," Gartner analyst Ray Valdes told Reuters.
Some experts say the news is not cause for alarm.
With Facebook's user base growing exponentially, Webby Awards and International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences chairman David-Michel Davies told the Daily News he believes that the engagement numbers have more to do with the growing number of users.
"As you broaden and broaden and broaden, you're not going to have the level of engagement with 100 people as you're going to have with 900 million people," he said.
The Reuters' survey also found 46% of respondents had a bad view of investing in Facebook's stock.
Facebook currently derives most of its revenue from ads on its websites, Reuters reports.
The survey also found that 4 out of 5 users have never bought a product as a result of advertising or comments on the social media site - a claim experts found dubious.
"People talk about lots of things on Facebook all the time and that influences people to make their decisions whether they realize it or not," Davies said.
Valdes, according to Reuters, agreed.
"Comments and recommendations from friends on Facebook do carry a lot of weight, so I'm surprised by the number," he said.
The poll was conducted online between May 31-June 4, with 1,032 American participants. Twenty-one percent of participants said they have no Facebook account.
The news about user engagement comes months after the site switched to a "Timeline" form and just days after the company's bungled IPO.
"Facebook continuously has the challenge of Facebook fatigue, of the novelty factor wearing off, and therefore they have to introduce new kinds of interaction," Gartner analyst Ray Valdes told Reuters.
Some experts say the news is not cause for alarm.
With Facebook's user base growing exponentially, Webby Awards and International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences chairman David-Michel Davies told the Daily News he believes that the engagement numbers have more to do with the growing number of users.
"As you broaden and broaden and broaden, you're not going to have the level of engagement with 100 people as you're going to have with 900 million people," he said.
The Reuters' survey also found 46% of respondents had a bad view of investing in Facebook's stock.
Facebook currently derives most of its revenue from ads on its websites, Reuters reports.
The survey also found that 4 out of 5 users have never bought a product as a result of advertising or comments on the social media site - a claim experts found dubious.
"People talk about lots of things on Facebook all the time and that influences people to make their decisions whether they realize it or not," Davies said.
Valdes, according to Reuters, agreed.
"Comments and recommendations from friends on Facebook do carry a lot of weight, so I'm surprised by the number," he said.
Source - Reuters
