Some people Facebook during sex, some will update their status whilst driving, some will do it to slag off their boss, whilst others will use it to stalk an ex. With over 800 million users spread around the world there are no doubt many more reasons behind familiar uses of the site.
New research from Boston University attempts to take the lid off of our social networking behaviour however by asking why people use Facebook. The study's hypothesis was that are motivations were typically split into two camps:
- The desire to belong
- The desire to show off
Inside Facebook
What is more interesting (imo) is a breakdown of who uses Facebook. The study conducted demographic research into the kind of people that are heavy Facebook users versus those that aren't so keen.
The study joins other research into Facebook usage. For instance past research has shown that narcissists are perhaps not surprisingly heavy Facebook users, with them using the site as a means of self promotion. Another study revealed that the wall is the favourite feature of neurotic folks, whilst shy users were found to like using Facebook most, even though they generally have much fewer friends than non-shy people.
What is interesting however is that people classed as disciplined, organised and achievement-orientated reported the lowest Facebook usage of all. So are smarter types turning away from Facebook? Is it that they find belonging in more substantial ways or don't feel the need to boost their self-esteem by self promoting extensively?
If reaching out to this particular demographic it might be worth considering whether Facebook is really the platform for you to do so. This is especially the case if you're using Facebook to screen potential recruits for instance. With so called Facebook Resisters growing in number, reflected in a slowdown in Page growth reported yesterday, maybe the time has come for people to take an active stance and detox from Facebook for a while.
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I don't know if I'd regard myself as smart but I generally can't be bothered with Facebook. I have a relatively small network of close friends and I keep in touch with them in real life rather than online. That works pretty well for me thus far.
I\’m much the same I have to say. As most of my work now is in the B2B sector I find myself spending less and less time on Facebook. I very rarely use it for personal purposes now.
Hi Adi,
I have some news I'd like to share which could be an interesting blog post. Do you have an email address I can contact you on?
Mine is rob@medlmobile.com
Thanks
Rob
I use facebook as a page but not so much 'personally'. The purpose of the page isn't self promotion, in fact I rarely if ever post anything personal on it, but rather as a forum for debate and discussion from a wide variety of people to help me (and hopefully those using the platform) get a more secular view.
I enjoy a good ol' fashioned debate and facebook is, generally, an alright place to do that. What's wrong with that?
You can't have the same kind of conversation with a whole group of people you respect and value on the telephone without incurring costs for tele-conferencing; a huge amount of co-ordination and a phone bill!
I guess the same 'accusations' could be fired at anyone using any social media platform beit twitter; blogging; digg; Kiltr and so on.
How can you generalise the predominant characteristics of 800 million users without obvious blind spots and pitfalls?
Yes, fair point Colin. There will always be some diamonds in the rough. Personally speaking though I get so much more out of blogs and even the good old fashioned discussion forum. Both allow for easy, not to mention lengthy, discussions that are often not happening on Facebook.
Even for things like the Economist FB page, I'd get much better user insight from the comments on their website than I ever get on their FB page. Ditto guys like HBR, and to a great extent CMI as well.
That isn't to say that Facebook doesn't have its uses, I'm just not sure B2B type things are really it.
I wonder how many Facebook accounts are just 2nd accounts built to help with Farmville, or as your other article suggests, fake accounts created to help make brands seem more popular?
I agree re: B2B but think there's still a significant and successful B2C market there – virgin media put an announcement out about broadband being down; O2 and other mobile networks update their customers using it; BlackBerry when they had their massive outage and so on.
Cloud's also had a fair bit of interest generated through social media although more twitter than facebook.
One noticeable absence – Apple. King of the 3G and app on the mobile phone so you're always 'connected' yet they're not to be found on social media (that I can find – many spoofs but I can't find a genuine one)?
Re: B2C – Central Scotland Police won a national award for their use of social media in policing!
Yes, I'm certainly not dismissing Facebook as a useful platform as it certainly has its uses. To use psychological vernacular though, I think it suits type 1 style decisions, ie those that are intuitive and instinctive and don't demand a great deal of thought.
With any social media presence you need to think things through regarding how it'll be used. I've posted up a matrix to help out.
http://www.adigaskell.org/blog/2012/01/03/do-you-…
I think I'm probably the only person I know that isn't on Facebook. Am I missing anything?
Don't think so. I get much better value out of Google+ than I do Facebook.
I agree with you. Smarter people also know that Facebook is isolating us (as people are using Facebook as a substitute not just as another tool) from the face to face interactions of real networks of close family and friends. These relations take time and effort to build but are ultimately more rewarding.
<What is interesting however is that people classed as disciplined, organised and achievement-orientated reported the lowest Facebook usage of all. So are smarter types turning away from Facebook? Is it that they find belonging in more substantial ways or don't feel the need to boost their self-esteem by self promoting extensively?>In addition to these reasons, it may be that they are smart enough to know… this is risky behavior – anything I post can be mis-interpreted and come back to bite me… this is a huge time suck – I could be doing better things with my time…. this might be negatively impacting my home life – spending too much time on line takes away from the family. My B2B business does not do well on FB but my cliets B2C businesses do. I use it for inbound information as well – I follow a lot of businesses and I have them arranged into lists so that I can pull up all SEO posts at once, and all Marketing posts at once etc.
That seems a sensible use Abigail. Do you find you get better seo/marketing content on Facebook than other sources or do you find people post much the same thing across all platforms?
Great post and analogy Adi.
In my opinion every social network has a different social party going on and most the social media pros are agreed that, Facebook profile is for personal connections, Twitter is for breaking the news and Google + hanging out with like minded people.
And I totally agree with this concept and this is how I am using my social network profiles.
People FB during sex?! That person needs a therapist among other things. I'm just stunned. People really do that? Wow.
Hard to believe isn't it? Wonder if it's mostly men or women that do it?
Here you go Karen
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/3-of-peop…
It was an Australian study. As for the gender split, 64% were men, 36% women.
I use facebook when I can, around life and work commitments and know many smart people who use it even for both reasons. I agree with some of what you're saying, particularly with how different social media sites attrack a certain type. But the answer to your question, I don't think that's the case at all.
…and what do they use it for. If they are posting inane updates about their own life (many posts) then I'd expect the narcissists reign large. Is there a useful way to use it. What about LinkedIn. My sense is LI has a done a good job cultivating a "professional, useful" and smart? image.