NPR on Facebook(Overview)

Preferences and Habits of NPR’s Facebook FansJuly 2010

Prepared for NPR’s Social Media DeskReport by Noel Cody

Audience Insight and Research

Methodology• The NPR Facebook Survey was conducted online and deployed July 12-19, 2010.

• Respondents were recruited through messages posted on NPR’s Facebook page.

• A total of 40,043 respondents began the survey; about 33,304 respondents completed all of the questions within the survey.

• Respondents were self-selected and the resulting sample is non-random -- therefore a margin of error cannot be calculated, and the survey results cannot be projected to any population other than the sample itself.

Note: Respondents under 18 were instructed to leave this question blank, and so are not included here

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010; Facebook Insights, July 2010

Breakdown of Respondents by Age and Gender

Note: This demographic breakdown is very similar to the demographic breakdown of “active” NPR Facebook fans.

Facebook Use and Online Behavior

• Frequency of Facebook Use

– Almost all respondents (96%) access Facebook at least once per day.

• How Fans Access NPR:– About 3 of every 4 respondents

listen to NPR on the radio.– 1 of every 5 respondents uses the

iPhone app.– Almost 3 in 10 listen to NPR

podcasts.– Fewer than 1 in 10 follow NPR on

Twitter.

• Time Spent with NPR– About 4 of every 5 access NPR for

less than 3 hours per day (includes radio listening).

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

Note: For the above question, respondents could choose more than one response.

For many of the charts in this summary, a given question’s most popular response will be highlighted with a green bar.

Facebook Use and Online Behavior

• News online

– About 3 of every 5 respondents get most or all of their news online.

• News on Facebook

– 3 of every 4 agree that Facebook is a major way in which they receive news and information from NPR.

– About half agree that Facebook is a major way for them to receive information from news organizations in general.

• NPR stories on Facebook– 84% have indicated that they

often click through to NPR stories that are posted on Facebook.

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

Facebook is a major way for me to receive news and information from NPR.

Facebook is a major way for me to receive news and information from news organizations in general.

General Behavior: Comments, “Likes”, and Engagement

• Leaving Facebook Comments– Some fans leave Facebook comments

on NPR stories they enjoy, while others do not: 22% strongly indicated that they leave comments for these stories, while 34% strongly indicated that they do not.

– The majority do not leave Facebook comments on NPR stories that they dislike.

• The Value in Accumulating Comments

– A majority of respondents say that a large number of “Likes” or Facebook comments on an NPR story does not make them more likely to read that story.

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

I often "Like" or leave comments for NPR stories on Facebook that I enjoy.

I'm more likely to check out NPR stories with many "Likes" or Facebook comments than ones with few "Likes" or comments.

General Behavior: Comments, “Likes”, and Engagement

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

• Reading Comments

– The majority of respondents do not read a story’s Facebook comments before reading the story itself.

– Almost half indicate that they sometimes read comments on a story’s link on Facebook after reading the story itself.

• Other Forms of Engagement

– The majority have not shared an NPR story via Twitter in the past five months, but have shared an NPR story via Facebook.

– The majority of respondents have not left a comment on NPR.org in the last five months.

I often read the Facebook comments posted for an NPR story after I've read the story itself.

In the past five months, have you…

• General Perceptions

– User comments are generally perceived to be lively, polite, and civil. Just as importantly, comments are rarely considered to be vulgar.

• Segmentation by Like/Dislike of Comments

– Not surprisingly, those fans who indicated that they like comments (43% of respondents) have a more positive perception of the tone those comments than those who indicated that they do not like comments (14% of respondents).

– Both respondents who liked comments and those who did not both agreed that comments were “lively”, but those who liked comments agreed slightly more strongly.

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

Perception of Comments

I think the comments left by other users on NPR's Facebook posts are generally:

Strongly Disagree

Disagree Somewhat Disagree

Neither Agree

nor Disagree

Somewhat Agree

Agree Strongly Agree

Note: This chart was calculated using the mean response for each adjective.

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

Story PreferencesI think NPR posts…

NPR should post less of

these

NPR should post more of

these

NPR posts just the right amount of

these

Story Preferences

• Post Frequency

– Only 6% of respondents think that NPR posts too many stories each day, while about 7 of every 10 think that NPR posts just the right amount. About 1 of every 5 respondents thinks that NPR should post more stories each day.

• General Preferences

– Most popular story types: Offbeat stories, hard news/breaking news, stories that update fans on what’s happening with events that are in progress, and stories about international news and issues.

– Least popular story types: Stories about sports, stories about rich, powerful, famous, or infamous people.

• Segmentation by Preference

– Fans who want to read more hard news stories generally also want to read more offbeat stories, and visa versa. This indicates that NPR fans appreciate a wide variety of stories on Facebook.

• Sharing with Friends– More respondents agree than disagree that

NPR should give them something to talk about with friends: 24% strongly indicated that this is important to them, while 13% have strongly indicated that it is not.

– The majority expect their friends to share links to interesting information and news stories with them online.

• Facebook Recommendations on NPR.org

– The majority of respondents would not like to see their Facebook friends’ recommendations when they visit NPR.org.

– However, of those who would, 2/3rds would rather the recommendations be opt-in rather than automatically displayed.

Source: NPR Facebook Survey, July 2010

Friends and RecommendationsIt's important that the stories that NPR posts on Facebook give me

something to talk about with my friends.

Would you prefer if these recommendations were displayed automatically, or would you prefer if NPR.org asked your permission

before displaying the recommendations?