Are Facebook Likes Worthless?

A latest Gallup survey came out few days back, which gives a shocking and bizarre fact which many large companies were suspecting from quite some time. The survey states that large fan likes does not represent higher selling of products and services etc. The survey states that a large number of people do not visit social media sites to engage in buying selling of different types of products but to interact with people such as friends and family. Gallup report further states that it conducted survey in form of questionnaire from about 18,000 customers.

The questionnaire was regarding the effect social networking websites on the decisions of their buying and selling. 62 % of the respondents of the survey stated that they had zero influence totally. Even those people who are in their 30s right now, and in view of companies they form the largest group of social networking sites users, even 48 % of those in this age group stated that these sites such as facebook do not form any kind of influence on their buying decisions. The survey does not solely focus on Facebook, but also on other social media sites. An article written in Wall Street Journal states that it is quite possible that in lieu with this survey, past expectations of big companies might change. Their way of advertising can also be adversely affected due to this survey. In the past, many large companies created and then extensively promoted their facebook pages, as they deemed that it is an easy and much cheaper way to gain popularity and making new customers of their products.

Once the user likes a facebook page, he will constantly get the posts and shares of that facebook page on his news-feed, in this way the user will be aware of the products and offers of that company. But in recent years, facebook diverted from its policy and amended it in a way that now a user will not see all of the posts made by a page but only some specific ones. Since then, companies have expressed their reservations on this formula, because in this way the facebook is perusing the companies to buy facebook ads which will add to the revenue of facebook.

Facebook on the other hand claims that it is not due to the reason of earning more revenue, but they have changed the policy as now user will prioritize the posts that he actually wants to see because normally there is too much stuff on the news-feed of average facebook user.

Gallup however mentioned that it does not completely negate the effectiveness of social media websites completely. Companies can still use and benefit facebook as a way to respond to queries of their customers and to show them loyalty which will enhance sales.

On average, Gallup reported that USA companies spent about 5.1 Billion$ on social media advertising only in the year 2013. They did that due to a stern believe they had on investing on facebook. Let’s see what will be the sum of investment made next year following Gallup survey.