Social Ads Are an Irritant

There’s too much advertising on social media, U.S., U.K., Canadian, and Australian consumers told Hootsuite in a recent survey.

More than 6 in 10 respondents said they know advertising helps to keep social media free, but 59 percent said there’s too much of it. Additionally, 52 percent of people are exhausted by self-promotional brand content on social media, and one in three would prefer if there was no brand content on social media at all.

Respondents said that content considered to be “clickbait” was the most unwelcome and might induce them to unfollow companies and brands on social media. Consumers also took issue with content that they say is boring (68 percent), inauthentic (68 percent), repetitive (68 percent), and angling for metrics (63 percent).

Conversely, consumers said they were interested in seeing more content that tells or teaches them something new (56 percent), makes them laugh (55 percent), and inspires them to take a particular action (47 percent). They would also be more likely to share this kind of content with family and friends.

Curiously, though, consumers said their views about what companies should or should not do on social media do not necessarily influence their purchasing decisions.

Consumers also told Hootsuite that they did not want companies to weigh in on political issues (46 percent), religion and spirituality (37 percent), and gender identification and sexuality (31 percent). Instead, companies could safely engage in conversations about charitable causes, environmental concerns, education, and health and wellness.

For companies on social media, being followed by consumers does have an impact, the research also found. In fact, 75 percent of people who follow a brand on social media plan to buy from it, and 58 percent said following brands impacts their purchasing decisions.