How Does Facebook Define ‘Active Users?’

What exactly is an engaged user on the internet today? Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times Dealbook argues that Facebook is blanketing the term “engaged” in their post-IPO user reports. He writes:

“Every time you press the ‘Like’ button on NFL.com, for example, you’re an ‘active user’ of Facebook. Perhaps you share a Twitter message on your Facebook account? That would make you an active Facebook user, too. Have you ever shared music on Spotify with a friend? You’re an active Facebook user. If you’ve logged into Huffington Post using your Facebook account and left a comment on the site — and your comment was automatically shared on Facebook — you, too, are an “active user” even though you’ve never actually spent any time on facebook.com.”

So what does this mean for marketers? Maybe not much in the long run — as long as you’re seeing increasing engagement and ROI from your social activities on Facebook, the platform’s shoddy metrics on a macro level are probably the least of your worries. But they don’t help Facebook grow trust with marketers, something it should probably be more worried about.