This is an mini case study about user interaction with my Facebook profile. I thought it would be interesting to see how many of my friends on my personal Facebook profile will wish me a happy birthday, which was yesterday (September 7th). I am friends with a multitude of users on facebook from friends I grew up with, affiliates, advertisers, networks, etc.
Since I started getting birthday wishes on my Facebook wall, I was curious to see how many of my Facebook friends will wish me a happy birthday by either writing on my wall or sending me a message. The reason why I decided to see what percentage of users will write on my wall is the fact birthdays is always displayed in the upper right hand corner of Facebook. This means users will almost always see whose birthday it is everyday. This can tell me 2 things...
- Percentage of users who log into Facebook
- Percentage of users who will communicate
I found this intriguing because, I personally seem to log into Facebook everyday and randomly. I wanted to know personally is this 'syndrome' happening to everyone else that I am friends with? and if so will they wish me a happy birthday. It is hard to know who logged in and then find out who wished me a happy birthday, that specific data is hard to get. So I just went with the total friends I am friends with. I also try to keep my friends list under 1000 because I want users who I personally know or have at least communicated with in the past.
Anyways, out of 987 friends on Facebook only 237 wrote on my wall wishing me a happy birthday, which is 24% of users. I am grateful for the friends that have wished me a happy birthday yesterday. I definitely enjoyed my bday yesterday, thanks everyone.
So this tells me that maybe only 24% of users either logged during the day and saw the Facebook notice of my birthday. So I thought this was interesting mini study to find out who actually would want to extend their text to keep the friendship or relationship strong. It is interesting to see that about 24% of my friends either logged in during the day and saw the notice and they took action on it.
The other interesting part of this is also new friend requests, I get some everyday. I did notice an exponential new amount yesterday. I would contrast this to the friend relationship. If someone wrote on my wall, there is a small notice on their wall stating they "wrote on Ian Fernando' wall" - thus expanding the reach of my birthday.
So this tells me even at 24% the reach I can get with someone just commenting or leaving a note can greatly influence other users to take action. Being it was my birthday, it might have been more proactive for users to write and interact than if it wasn't my birthday. I definitely do not get 200 wall posts on my profile, I either get 1-3 a day if that.
This tells me users will interact if there is a need to do so, example someones birthday. There is a need to interact with that user because Facebook notifies that user or others are influencing them. It was just a curious thought and a thought I thought worth sharing.
Thanks again for everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday and Happy Born!!
