Take a look at the Facebook Fan Pages of some brands and what you see is not a pretty picture. Oh, the numbers look good, but when you dig a little deeper a different picture emerges. Walls filled with off topic conversations at best, vile language and real antipathy for the brand at worst. What happened? Wasn’t having thousands of fans supposed to be a good thing?
Well, yes and no. Sure, it’s great having several hundred thousands fans. But how did you come to get those fans? Did you earn them through fantastic customer service, fulfilling the brand promise, providing value to the community in an authentic and passionate voice, or did you run a Facebook ad campaign and hit the broadcast airwaves with a promotion?
Let’s look at my old favorite, TGI Friday’s:
Remember that ad? Pretty cool, right? In fact, as I recall, they got over 1 million Facebook fans. Google TGI Friday’s Fan Woody and it looks pretty good.
But then something not so awesome happened. All those fans wanted their free burgers and they wanted them now! TGI Friday’s completely lost control of the page and eventually doled out a lot of free burgers. Now from a short term perspective I’m sure they did ok on the deal. People came in and ate their food. But they could have accomplished that with coupons in the mail, the newspaper or by an email list. But they decided to go the Social Media route.
Now, let’s take a look at what the Friday’s FanWoody Facebook page looks like today:
Whoops! It’s gone.
Apparently Woody and his 900,000+ fans went poof. How come? I’m guessing it had something to do with the venom and general anarchy the page had created by buying fans rather than growing them. A TGI Friday’s Facebook page does exist, with roughly a third of the fans they used to have. TGI Friday’s pretty much had to spray Agent Orange on their relationship with 600,000 people.
It’s easy to pick on TGI Friday’s but they certainly aren’t the only guilty party. I think plenty of brands have heard the siren call of Facebook ads. The ability to target your demo is really terrific, but you’re in danger of creating a relationship with fans that ultimately is built on a “what have you done for me lately” foundation.
First, you essentially bought these fans. You paid Facebook for the right to target them. Then in the case of TGI Friday’s or other brands that offer free product or discount coupons, you are essentially buying them again. This sets up a pattern where the consumer now expects to be rewarded for being your fan with a tangible item, that is, free stuff. That’s not a bonus item, it’s now a standard part of the agreement. Want me as a fan? Give me free stuff.
The point of Social Media isn’t to distribute coupons and a real fan wants to engage with a brand for a whole host of reasons, often free / discounted product is the least of these reasons. I’m not saying that special bonuses, or ‘surprise and delight’ offers aren’t ever a good thing. I think when used properly they can be terrific. What do I mean by used properly? As a reward for people who have engaged with the brand in a meaningful way. Send us a picture of you wearing a brand t-shirt and sure, you’ve earned a free sandwich. Recruit some friends and I’m happy to give you all some coupons. But when fans enter the relationship feeling they are entitled to free samples and you’re in trouble.
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Dr. Harish Kotadia
on Mar 25th, 2010
@ 8:22 pm:
Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For http://bit.ly/ap0CBN #sCRM #PR #analytics
Philip Soffer
on Mar 25th, 2010
@ 9:18 pm:
RT @HKotadia: Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For http://bit.ly/ap0CBN #sCRM #PR – No wonder. FB fan is a shallow engagement vehicle.
K Vashee
on Mar 26th, 2010
@ 12:54 am:
Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For http://bit.ly/ailV4L
Blitz
on Apr 16th, 2010
@ 8:53 pm:
With TGI Friday, FB Fans – social media debacle http://bit.ly/cYv6ig
Carrie Fox
on Apr 16th, 2010
@ 8:55 pm:
RT @BlitzConnects With TGI Friday, FB Fans – social media debacle http://bit.ly/cYv6ig
David Frawley
on Apr 16th, 2010
@ 10:40 pm:
RT @BlitzConnects: With TGI Friday, FB Fans – social media debacle http://bit.ly/cYv6ig
Kathy Sharpe
on Apr 18th, 2010
@ 1:02 pm:
About time there was some acknowledgement of the true value of fans. Even if you have 3 million+ fans and they are all well behaved citizens what is the real marketing value?
carrie kerpen
on Apr 18th, 2010
@ 11:44 pm:
RT @eyecube Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For http://bit.ly/cYv6ig : I love when I'm right!
Kaili Hawley
on Apr 19th, 2010
@ 12:45 am:
Could not agree more! RT @carriekerpen: RT @eyecube Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For http://bit.ly/cYv6ig : I love when I'm right!
Scott Spira
on Apr 19th, 2010
@ 1:40 pm:
Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For http://bit.ly/aWplLB via @AddToAny
Charles Lim
on Apr 21st, 2010
@ 10:51 pm:
Facebook Fans: You Get What You Pay For: http://www.rickliebling.com/2010/03/24/facebook-fans-you-get-what-you-pay-for/
The Fallacy of Authenticity « How soon is now?
on Nov 15th, 2011
@ 5:23 pm:
[...] This last category is difficult to pull off. I’ve written about my disagreement with those running the SXSW panel on brand mascots in the digital age. To me, a character like Tony the Tiger would be a Fake-Fake. If the character was anything beyond a corporate shill it would be disingenuous to the brand because that’s what he was created to be. Furthermore, any interaction with a consumer beyond pushing the product would seem false to a consumer. Another example is that of P.J. Bland’s. To showcase how tasty their menu is, Chili’s created a fake restaurant chain called P.J. Bland’s that served cardboard. Clever. But then they tried to take it to social media. Not clever. More than 1,000 tweets in three months netted them just 1,200 followers. Who knows how many of those are just bots that started following long after the account went dormant? P.J. Bland’s didn’t work because it was a Fake-Fake. I called them on this early (see post here), and in the same post I called out T.G.I. Friday’s for their Fake-Fake fan Woody program which didn’t turn out too hot either. [...]