Public Lacks Social Monetization Mojo: A survey from Harris Interactive on behalf of The Search Agency finds that large numbers of people in the U.S. don’t really understand how Facebook and Google make money.
The study asks 2,000 adults whether agreed with the question, “I understand how Facebook makes money.” A slight majority (54%) say that they strongly or somewhat agree. On the flip side, 46% essentially do not understand. Other findings include:
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When it comes to search engine revenues, people do better. Just over three-fourths (78%) understand that search engines made money through advertising “that runs with search results.”
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A striking 36% of respondents think that search engines “sell users’ personal data to marketers.”
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Another 29% think that “companies pay annual dues for use.”
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Finally, 20% believe that users pay search engines for “premium features.”
The lesson here? While the U.S. public may not understand social media monetization, what’s important to communicators is that they populate social platforms and are actively engaged. PRN
Source: The Search Agency/Harris Interactive
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