According to new data released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, user satisfaction with social media platforms is on the rise, led by Facebook’s recent success with its mobile app and improved ad targeting. In terms of customer satisfaction, Facebook was ranked the lowest social media site in 2012, but has since worked its way up to the middle of the pack, behind Pinterest, Wikipedia, YouTube, Instagram and Google+ (in that order). ACSI currently has Facebook ranked ahead of Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “5,400 consumers were asked online to rank social media sites 1-10 on three-dozen areas such as mobile applications, ease of navigating websites, and ad targeting.” ACSI also uses criteria such as content, video quality, privacy and performance.

Brian Solis, principal analyst for Altimeter Group, calls Facebook “a quintessential case study of mobile user satisfaction.”

However, “customer satisfaction for search engines declined in the new index, as did Google’s satisfaction score,” notes WSJ. ACSI managing director David VanAmburg “said the dip reflected users clicking on search results that are not always optimized for mobile browsers.”

In terms of low-ranking major players such as Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn — currently ranked behind Facebook — “VanAmburg says these low marks are likely a function of two things: privacy issues that continue to plague these sites and the plethora of advertising many of these sites have,” notes MarketWatch. “And he says that they’ll persist as long as they continue using their current business model.”

A free downloadable PDF of the ACSI E-Business Report 2015 is available online (registration required).