Number of Clicks on Facebook Links Dropped Significantly

Bad news for the retailers that hope content shared on Facebook immediately after purchases by consumers will lead to clicks on their websites as the number of these clicks dropped significantly, a new study shows.

The research was made by social commerce platform Shopon on over 26,500 shares across multiple category verticals. Unfortunately for resellers, the results show a significant drop in the number of clicks on links posted to Facebook, even when the customers posted personal messages containing their own opinion. The messages were posted using Shopon’s platform which motivates customers to share products they recently purchased as part of the post-checkout process. The number of these clicks dropped from 3.6 in May 2011 to 1.2 in May 2012.

This is bad news for Facebook as the platform needs money from advertising, and the findings of this study don’t really recommend the platform and its means of promotion as good for businesses.

“Facebook is telling us that more people are going on and sharing product and more people are engaging with their platform,” says Andrew McCarthy, Co-founder of Shopon and business development manager at digital agency Amblique. “They are, but that doesn’t mean [posts are] going to get more traction… the volume of content going through Facebook has increased exponentially in the past year.”

The study also showed that roughly 4% of people will share as part of the post-purchase process when offered an incentive. This is the conclusion after 26,500 buyers were offered a 15% discount coupon to share their purchase on the social network. 10,500 shared news of their purchase in a personal message which led to nearly 13,000 clicks back to the sites involved in the study and, in the end, to around 1100 sales.

It is funny, though, that we seem to have two different opinions, both based on studies. The researches by ComScore show that advertising on the social network brings results which turn into sales, while others point out that marketers believe Facebook is a must, but not necessarily through ads. Is it all about interests? Is advertising on Facebook a waste of money? Time will tell.

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