Recently I’ve had several friends tell me that they’re not using facebook as much as they used to or anymore.  My brother keeps talking about “facebook suicide,” a term I first heard from him. Basically it means he would unfriend everyone or just turn his account off and walk away. He hasn’t done that yet, but I do have another friend who did. In both cases, they just got too tired of “acquaintances” wanting to be their friends, and the endless stream of useless application and requests from friends. How many food fights and mafia wars can you be in!?
I also have slowed down my facebook access, checking only once every couple or few days instead of several times a day. I have to say, the novelty has worn off. That said, I have been in closer contact with a few friends that I probably wouldn’t have made otherwise.
As business application, I don’t believe it’s nearly as effective as others. But it is in the top 4 popular social media applications, which are: Twitter, blogs LinkedIn, and facebook (according to Social Media Marketing Industry Report at WhitePaperSource.com)
Anyway, back to facebook suicide… According to the April 27 issue of Advertising Age, we’re not alone. It explains why nearly a third of social networkers are frustrated and why social network marketers have to work harder and be much more transparent.
How to Get the Most Out of Social Networks and Not Annoy Users – by Emma Hall
Nearly a third of social networkers say they are fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new applications, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau in the U.K. That means marketers will need to work harder and keep innovating if they want to harness the consumer power of social networks and persuade people to join their sponsored sites or pages.
When asked “What do you dislike about social networks?” by far the highest response, at 31%, was that there are too many invites to install applications, followed by 16% who said “when advertising isn’t relevant to me.” Slightly more than 5% complained about messages from brands and another 5% actually lamented the addictiveness of social networks. About 12% said they had no complaints. The research showed that 7% of respondents sign up to find out about brands.
I’ve also recently noticed that I’ve been “unfriended” by at least 2 friends and I don’t know why. But, I suspect it also has to do with people trimming their friend lists to make a tighter circle of close friends (that maybe won’t throw food at them).
Oh, and please share this on facebook!
