New research issued by Pew Research in the United States found that almost two-thirds of Facebook users have taken a break of several weeks or more away from Facebook. When asked to elaborate further about this, participants surprisingly didn’t cite security issues as a major concern. In fact, security was quite a way down the list of reasons with the majority view is that they took a break because they were just too busy.
Here’s the full list of reasons:
On the upside, however, the same research found that 92% of users maintain a profile on Facebook and regularly update it and/or interact with their friends. This will come as a relief to advertisers as whilst the targeting can be excellent on Facebook adverts it is totally reliant on being able to target users who are actually active on the site.
This good news, however, is countered by the statistic that when asked, 28% of Facebook users say the site has become less important to them and they are spending less time on it than a year ago. This is quite worrying as if one-quarter of your users are reporting that they intend to use your product less in the coming year, or are not bothered about losing the features and benefits that it delivers then this should sound a warning note to senior Management.
Delivering increased quarterly revenues seems to be the focus at the moment but that is just the headline number. The real story, that of usage, lies hidden beneath the waterline.
