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"Although a poll circulated the web last week that found one-third of Facebook users are using the social network less than six months ago, statistics show site engagement is actually up.\nA survey conducted among 1,032 Americans by Reuters and research firm Ipsos found that 35% of Facebook users said they are less engaged on the social network than they have been in the recent past and only 20% of members are spending more time on the site. However, both comScore and Nielsen traffic data shows members are accessing Facebook just as much \u2014 if not more \u2014 than six months ago.\nAccording to comScore, behavioral data shows that engagement for users is actually up 4% from 364 minutes spent on the site for each person in September compared to 379 minutes in April.\n\"People may think they are spending less time on Facebook, but estimations about their own behavior are often skewed. Just because they think they are accessing the site less doesn't mean that's actually true \u2014 the poll may represent their sentiment and perception, not their actual behavior,\" Andrew Lipsman, vp of industry analysis at comScore, told Mashable. \n\nSEE ALSO: Facebook Engagement Dips: 34% Spend Less Time on Site [STUDY]\nMeanwhile, Nielsen data shows that Facebook had 151 million unique U.S. visitors in April 2012 and seven out of 10 all Americans who went online in April visited the site. Meanwhile, 7 hours 9 minutes time spent on overage for each person, which makes up 18% of total time spent online during the month.\nIn fact, engagement on Facebook far surpasses that of other popular sites, including AOL (2 hours, 30 minutes), Yahoo (2 hours, 23 minutes), Google (1 hour, 56 minutes) and YouTube (1 hour, 30 minutes).\nFacebook members are also returning to the site often, averaging about 28 sessions (nearly one time a day) in April.\nBut to get a full look at traffic, it's best to assess it on a year-over-year basis to account for season activity patterns. Facebook's unique audience and time spent on the site is actually flat in the U.S. from April 2011 from already high levels of activity, according to Nielsen. However, both of these metrics are up compared to 2010, which shows that the site remains a popular destination site with an active user base.\nThe Reuters and Ipsos poll also noted that four out of five Facebook members said they have never been influenced by ads run on the site, but this is another behavioral area where it's hard for consumers to accurately assess. \n\"It's difficult to ask if an ad has influenced someone because people don't always know when they have been affected by advertising,\" Lipsman says. \"People also don't like to believe that ads work on them, even when data supports they do influence purchasing decisions and behavior.\"\nFacebook has publicly discussed how various ad campaigns have been affective for brands trying to reach customers on the site. For example, a Nutella campaign in Germany experienced 15% increase in sales attributed to Facebook and U.S. chain Applebee's raked in 3% jump in sales and experienced a three-fold return on investment from a campaign in ran on Facebook, beating out other paid digital ads."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/06/13/facebook-engagement-poll/>