There's too much advertising on social media, 6 in 10 respondents tell Hootsuite

Most consumers know advertising keeps social media free, but they also think there’s too much of it clogging their feeds, according to research from Hootsuite released on Tuesday.

More than six in 10 respondents said they know advertising helps to keep social media free, but 59% said there’s too much of it, and 52% are fed up with self-promotional brand content.

The report also found that clickbait is the most-cited reason (76%) why consumers would unfollow a brand on social media. Other unwelcome content includes boring (68%), inauthentic (68%) or repetitive content (68%) and angling for metrics (63%).

Hootsuite’s Social Media Consumer Report is based on a survey of more than 6,000 respondents between the ages of 18 and 65 in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia.

There are also areas that consumers would prefer brands not wade into. This includes political policy (46%), religion and spirituality (37%) and gender identification and sexuality (31%). Safer areas are charitable causes, environmental concerns, educational practices and health and wellness.

Beyond specific content areas, respondents were predominantly interested in seeing content that tells or teaches them something new (56%), makes them laugh (55%) or inspires them (47%). This also corresponded with the type of brand content they were likely to share with family and friends.

Strong views about what brands should or should not do on social media does not affect consumers’ purchasing plans, the report found. Seventy-five percent of people who follow a brand on social media explicitly plan to shop from it and 58% said following brands impacts purchasing decisions.