Friday, June 8, 2012

Most Facebook users don’t buy because of site’s ads, survey says

by David Markiewicz

Facebook’s really been taking a beating lately.

From snarky reports that founder Mark Zuckerberg is a cheapskate restaurant tipper to the company’s underwhelming stock price, it’s sort of been one bit of bad news after the other lately.

Now this.

According to a Reuters poll, “Four out of five Facebook Inc. users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising or comments on the social network site.”

You, neither, huh?

This is disconcerting because Facebook is trying to find ways to generate revenue from its 900-million user base, and advertising to them, naturally, is a prime means.

Reuters notes that it did not ask how other forms of advertising influenced buyers, but said a study by researcher eMarketer “suggested Facebook fared worse than email or direct-mail marketing in terms of influencing consumers’ decisions.”

Facebook declined to comment in detail on the survey, the report said, but noted the Facebook-related success of products like Nutella, which experienced a 15 percent bump in sales that was attributed to Facebook.



http://blogs.ajc.com

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