If you have lost a lot of faith in Facebook or Twitter this year, you certainly weren’t the only one. The American Customer Satisfaction Index reports that both of these social media platforms have brought significantly less satisfaction to users compared to just a year previously.
Having collected 5,125 interviews with customers during 2016’s second quarter, ASCI found customer satisfaction with social media in general to have fallen by 1.4%. However, Facebook and Twitter saw much larger falls than average, with respective declines of 9% and 8%.
These drops leave Facebook’s overall customer satisfaction rate at 68% and Twitter’s at 65%. YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram are all significantly ahead in this area, with respective rates of 77%, 76%, 76% and 74% – and all bar Pinterest saw 1% increases in satisfaction.
In a press release, ASCI noted the adverse publicity that Facebook and Twitter recently attracted relating to how their news feeds were arranged. Facebook was suspected of bias with its news trending, while Twitter moved away from its traditional reverse-chronological feed.
However, ASCI Managing Director David VanAmburg acknowledged: “It’s impossible for global brands with massive user bases like Facebook and Twitter to make everyone happy, and both are trying to do so much” – while YouTube provides “a very specialized and focused experience”.