It’s the most popular website in the US but according to the results of the recently released American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), our cousins across the Atlantic are not happy with the social networking giant. Is this a case of ‘cake and eat it’ or are consumers having genuine issues with Facebook?

Privacy Issues and Interface Changes

Well publicised privacy issues are sure to have had an impact on Facebook’s very low satisfaction index of 63 (scored out of 100), which is the lowest of the social media sites that were scored and even lower that another poorly performing industry, the airline industry.

Frequent changes to the user interface has also been a regular gripe of Facebook users, along with increased, in your face commercialisation, with annoying adverts that are supposedly targeted to the user. These issues have seen Facebook score a customer satisfaction score lower than other social media websites like MySpace and well below the score of 77 for the ever consistent Wikipedia.

Social Media – User Generated Content

Social Media websites are composed primarily of user generated content, with the website owner creating the framework within which the subscribers’ community can flourish. While its true you can’t please all the people all the time so some dissatisfaction is always going to be present, Facebook and others must begin to take note of their subscribers concerns or the next big thing could swoop in a very short space of time. Currently there is no heir apparent to take Facebook’s crown, but that socially aware organisation must be there, waiting in the wings. It took Facebook about five years to go from 1 Million active users to 500 Million active users leaving MySpace eating their dust, so once the next big thing emerges, it’ll only takes a few clicks and a few months for a thriving community to jump ship and take up residence in a new Social Media location.