Facebook has a content problem. According to a study by GlobalWeb Index only 34 percent of Facebook users share anything on the site in a month. This follows a huge decrease in organic Facebook sharing. As Facebook was growing posts could reach almost all your friends, but in the past year Facebook has purposefully throttled back the sharing to prevent people from over sharing. Most effected were businesses who use the social site to promote specials. In Hippo's case, we went from reaching about 25 percent of our users (through our various Facebook pages) to just a few percent. The message was clear -- pay up or you won't reach the people who say they want to be reached by you. My feeling on the news feed is that it's becoming like an inbox that is full of so much stuff I can't find the stuff I want to see.
A small aside, GlobalWeb Index has some great data on their blog -- for example people prefer free shipping than next day shipping. Makes sense. But good to know.