I am sure that you have noticed that whenever you login in to Facebook, there are often several advertisements in the side panels which appear to be – and are – targeted specifically towards yourself. Brands can reach their target demographics via Facebook who filters out customers on their behalf (and charges accordingly), using the information which users provide within their profiles and status updates.
Photo by adria.richards.
I don’t know about you but personally, it is rare that I will pay attention to such advertisements. I am instantly resistant to such, knowing that my information is being compromised (or at least, used) for the social network’s monetary gain.And it looks like I am not the only one who is unwelcoming of these ads…
New research by Mintel Group LTD (a London based market research firm) has revealed that over two thirds – 67% – of social network users claim to rarely pay attention to such advertisements. This figure increases to 70% when only taking the 25-34 age bracket into account.
The same research also indicated that 56% of consumers would not relish buying a product which they saw advertised on a social networking website, largely due to privacy concerns.
In fact, of those involved in the research, just 11% said that they actively pay attention to social network advertising.
What this suggests is that paid for advertising is not merely enough in current times and seems particularly lazy in the wake of more inventive, recent social media campaigns (Skittles live filling of a tank with the rainbow coloured confectionary, Corona Light’s mission to become the world’s most ‘Liked’ beer and Dunkin’ Donuts’ Coolatta Sweepstakes are just three examples of such engaging social media crusades).
Cecilia Liao – senior technology analyst at Mintel – agrees and said the following of the groups’ research:
“Static ads are not always the best way forward for consumer interaction, which is why it’s so important for marketers to use social networks to communicate and engage with customers through organic content, status updates and interesting creative campaigns.”
Whilst seeing a handful of your friends also ‘Like’ a product or campaign within the side panel of Facebook might pique a user’s interest somewhat, users know that their action of also ‘Liking’ it will see this fact appear within the panels of their friends pages. This fueling of the promotional snowball is what I suspect detracts users away from Facebook advertising.
Internet users are bombarded with enough advertisements as it is whilst they browse the internet and so it is hardly surprising that ads found on Facebook – where WWW surfers spend one minute in every eight whilst online – are ineffective.
Other social networking stats stemming from the research include the following:
- Social networks are more popular with women than they are with men. Of those polled, 17% of women had never used such a website, compared to 23% of male participants.
- One in three (32%) of social network users speak to their friend more online via such networks as opposed to face to face in real life.
- 58% of users are still concerned regarding their privacy on social networking websites. This is despite Facebook’s various attempts to convince its users that their personal data is well protected.
- 12% of consumers are now willing to pay to use social networks such as Facebook, should this be implemented in the future. This indicates the extent to which social networking has been ingrained into our lives.
- 15% of users claim that they use social networks in order to source cheap deals for things to do.
- Only 13% of users actively use Facebook to seek further information regarding brands.