We're the Lousy Product That Social Media Sells

We're all on social media, and since we don't pay for it, the logic goes, we're the product. Using our personal information, Facebook and Twitter and, uh, Google+ can sell ads on our sidebars and feeds and promise the buyers that they're reaching their desired audience. While you may not be crazy about your information being sold to a willing bidder, the buyers might not be getting such a good deal either.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that, if those are truly the terms of the deal, we're a pretty lousy product. Social media users, even us, the gullible frivolous Millennials, don't think that social media exerts any influence on their purchasing decisions. Only 5 percent of Americans using social media say that it has “a great deal of influence” on what they buy, and only 30 percent say social media has “some influence.”

Advertising has long relied on filling those spaces where you're looking, but aren't looking to spend. We're inundated from the sides of city buses, brick walls, construction sites, in the background of football games, on the players, on bananas, t-shirts, and from posters dragged across the sky. Even the Moon is in play in these early decades of the 21st century.

Even with all of these options, American companies spent $5.1 billion on social media advertising in 2013. According to Gallup, “they obviously believe that this presents them with a return on investment.” But either they straight up aren't getting that return and a whole bunch of social media managers are fit to be fired, or companies are reaching people and the reached don't realize it.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Jeff Elder explores why the reach was so bad. Part of it, according to a study that came out last year, is that people don't trust the advertising that reaches them on social media like they do the more traditional channels. At the same time, company pages and posts aren't reaching as many people as they used to.

“Facebook now manages the news feed to feature items it thinks users will want to see,” Elder writes. “The result: Brands reached 6.5% of their fans with Facebook posts in March, down from 16% in February 2012, according to EdgeRank Checker, a social-media analytics firm recently acquired by Socialbakers.”

And as has been well documented that somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.5 to 11.2 percent of Facebook accounts are fake anyway, with a similar percentage on Twitter.

According to the 18,525 American adults surveyed, we're looking to social media to communicate with our friends and family, and to share what we know, which probably explains why social media can still drive a ton of traffic for news sites and be lousy for people trying to sell something else.