Why Consumers Quit Brands on Facebook, Twitter, E-mail

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New research by ExactTarget-CoTweet blames overly frequent messaging and poor relevancy as major reasons to why consumers opt out of a company's Facebook page, Twitter feed, and e-mail list.

The messaging services firms surveyed 1,561 U.S. online users age 15 and up from Dec. 17, 2010 through Jan. 10, 2011. According to their report, here are some of the top reasons why consumers quit brands online for…

Facebook:

- company authored too many posts (44 percent);

- their wall became glutted with marketing (43 percent);

- messages were repetitive and boring (38 percent);

- posts were overly promotional (24 percent);

- content was irrelevant from the start (19 percent).

Twitter:

- messages were repetitive and boring (52 percent);

- tweet stream became inundated with marketing (41 percent);

- company tweeted too frequently (39 percent);

- tweets were overly promotional (21 percent);

- content was irrelevant from the start (15 percent).

E-mail:

- messages sent too frequently (54 percent);

- content became repetitive and boring (49 percent);

- too many e-mails were being sent by the brand (47 percent);

- messages were irrelevant from the start (25 percent);

- subscribed purely to get a one-time offer (22 percent).

In terms of that last e-mail item, Facebook and Twitter marketers also have concerns with serial deal seekers. Twenty-six percent of those surveyed said they only "liked" a brand to grab a special offer on Facebook, while 27 percent stated they acted similarly on Twitter. Conversely, respondents said they opted out of Facebook (24 percent) and Twitter (27 percent) pages due to not getting enough deals.

Only 6 percent said they opted out of e-mail lists because they could instead get the same information on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. It's a data point that veteran direct marketers who have transitioned over to e-mail should find encouraging.