Facebook Prods Users to Share a Bit More
Facebook Prods Users to Share a Bit More
Amount of new content posted has slipped, leading social
network to try to prompt conversation
By DEEPA SEETHARAMAN Nov. 2, 2015 10:18 p.m. ET
Surveys show users post less often on the social network,
which relies on users for an overwhelming majority of its content. In the third
quarter, market researcher GlobalWebIndex said 34% of Facebook users updated
their status, and 37% shared their own photos, down from 50% and 59%,
respectively, in the same period a year earlier.
Facebook users still visit the network often. Some 65% of
Facebook’s 1.49 billion monthly users visited the site daily as of June. But
these days, they are more likely to lurk or “like” and less likely to post a
note or a picture.
That isn’t a problem today for Facebook, which makes
money by showing ads to users. The company is expected to report a 36% jump in
revenue when it reports third-quarter financial results Wednesday.
But it could be a problem down the road. In a 2009 paper,
Facebook researchers said it was “vital” for social networks to encourage a
broad range of users to contribute content.
If fewer users post, “Facebook can potentially seem quite
dry or quite boring,” said Jason Mander, head of trends at GlobalWebIndex.
So Facebook is fighting back with new features. Since
May, the social network has placed prompts related to ongoing events at the top
of some users’ news feeds, aiming to spur conversations. The prompts are partly
based on a user’s likes and location, according to Facebook and companies
working with Facebook.
On May 25, for example, Facebook reminded users that it
was Memorial Day, displaying an image of an American flag above its standard
prompt, “What’s on your mind?” On Sept 27, it displayed an image of a crescent
moon as a prompt about the supermoon lunar eclipse. In October, it worked with
AMC Network Entertainment LLC to remind fans of “The Walking Dead” about the
show’s season premiere.
A Facebook spokesman said the company is testing “timely
reminders about things people might want to post about.” So far, the response
rates have been “excellent,” the spokesman said, declining to provide
specifics.
“People continue to share a ton on Facebook and the
overall level of sharing has remained not only strong, but similar to levels in
prior years,” the spokesman said.
Vanessa Clark said she visits Facebook daily, but doesn’t
post as frequently as she did a few years ago. The 29-year-old student and home
health-care provider said she used to write about her daily stresses, but now
holds back.
“I don’t want to post anything negative anymore,” she
said.
On Sept. 28, Ms. Clark saw a prompt for a football game
between her favorite team, the Green Bay Packers, and the Kansas City Chiefs.
She was taken aback and didn’t post.
There is surprisingly little data about how often users
post on Facebook. Analysts define “engagement” as the share of monthly Facebook
users who check the network daily, but that doesn’t reflect what users do on
the site.
The company offered some details in its early days, but
stopped after its 2012 initial public offering. In August 2011, for example,
Facebook said the average user created 90 pieces of content a month, including
news stories and photo albums. It has never updated the figure.
Last week, Facebook said that in 2014, users shared 50
billion pieces of content from other apps and websites. That works out to
roughly three pieces of content a month per user. Facebook declined to say how
much content was shared on Facebook overall.
GlobalWebIndex compiles its data from quarterly surveys
of roughly 50,000 Internet users in 34 markets world-wide, including nearly
40,000 Facebook users. It asks users whether they’ve engaged in 24 activities
on the social network over the past month, such as “liking” posts or updating
their status. Users who log in without posting, commenting or liking are
considered “passive.”
Mr. Mander said Facebook’s efforts may be gaining
traction. In the third quarter, 50% of those polled by GlobalWebIndex said they
were active or contributed to Facebook, up from 42% in the first quarter.
Older surveys from Pew Research Center also show a trend
toward passivity. In 2010, about 14% of U.S. Facebook users polled by Pew said
they updated their status at least once a day and 61% said they did this at
least every few weeks. By 2013, only 10% said they updated their status daily
and 47% at least every few weeks. The same surveys found more Facebook users
say they comment on others’ status updates, photos or links. Pew hasn’t
repeated the survey since.
Facebook has introduced other features to encourage
sharing, including new emojis that give users a wider range of expressions
beyond “like.” In March, Facebook launched “On This Day,” a feature that lets
users relive and share past posts.
“They’re trying to spur conversation around what’s
happening,” said Carmen Sutter, a product manager for the social-media
analytics unit of Adobe Systems Inc. Ms. Sutter said she sees prompts every
time her college football team, Penn State University, plays.
Marco Fiori, 27, a public-relations account director in
London, visits Facebook several times a day, but only posts about once a week.
He said opening Facebook’s mobile app is “more of a reflex than a conscious
decision.”
In August, Facebook urged him and others to “join the
conversation about the tube strike” in London. Mr. Fiori, who has been on
Facebook for almost a decade, said it was the first time he had seen such a
prompt from the social network.
“Honestly, it didn’t work,” he said. “The topic wasn’t
really one I’d share thoughts about.”
He did, however, post about the tube strike on Twitter.
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