Tech
Like Farming: Gaming Facebook for Fans
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 16 April 2013 09:38
- Written by Steve Streight
Why do I dislike and debunk all those images that are gaming Facebook?
You know, the "If we get one million Likes, daddy will buy us a new puppy" or "Click Like if you hate cancer" or "Share this on your wall if you love your mother."
Many times these "pull on your heartstrings" images are produced by spammers or companies desperate to "go viral."
Rather than provide real value, insights, expertise, how to tips, and meaningful, sincere interactions, they grab a photo of a sick child on the internet, without permission or the awareness of the parents of that child, and try to guilt trip you to click Like to indicate you are praying for the kid.
Even though some good-hearted, sincere people share these images, to show they're patriotic or religious or in sympathy with the message, the image itself typically is produced by a dubious party. Why do they do it? To increase their Facebook Edgerank.
By tricking or enticing people to click Like and Share on an image, they boost their FB Edgerank. All the Likes and Shares are interpreted by Facebook as votes for their FB profile, as though they are grinding out really valuable content. As their FB Edgerank increases, Facebook distributes all their status updates to more people.
It's not authentic. And it's decreasing the overall effectiveness of business pages on Facebook.
Here's what Augie Ray at ETB Experience: The Blog has to say about it.
Gerber deployed a baby photo contest in which those who wanted to vote for a friend's or relative's baby were required to become fans of the brand, regardless of whether they ever purchased a product from or had any relationship with Gerber. And Farmers Insurance gave away a freebie to Farmville players and set "the Guinness World Record for most 'likes' in a 24-hour period."
No one benefited from the fact marketers used inauthentic means to amass meaningless fans. Although people could have gotten true value out of knowing which brands their friends love, today none of us can tell if our friends' likes were motivated by true brand advocacy or a Mafia Wars freebie.
Marketers lost, as well. Thanks to EdgeRank, Facebook's algorithm to keep users' news feeds as interesting and sticky as possible, brands that accumulated disinterested fans failed to break through to most users' news feeds, and thus few "fans" ever see, much less engage with, brand status updates.
The result is easy to see throughout Facebook--fan pages with huge fan counts but small ratios of them "talking about" the brands. Inauthentic fans cannot drive authentic engagement.
In desperate need of engagement to break through to fans' news feeds, many brands are opting to game Facebook's EdgeRank rather than build meaningful dialog--more inauthentic tactics piled upon inauthentic tactics.
Why take the long, hard, authentic route of engaging people in a conversation about your product, service, brand or mission (or the things your customers really care about) when you can gather likes, replies and shares by posting pictures of puppy dogs or "Keep Calm" posters?
It is difficult, for example, to get people talking about insurance, risk and financial security, so Progressive's Flo rarely even tries; instead, she shares things like a picture of an ear of corn on a unicycle. (Oh, that Flo--it's a unicorn!) Other brands beg people to "like" if they believe one thing or "share" if they believe another.
One dead giveaway that the originator of the image is an insincere spammer, preying on the emotions of nice people, is seen when you visit their Facebook profile page. Often, these pages are full of similar images. "Click Like if you believe this Down syndrome girl is beautiful in her own way" and "Share this if you support the troops" -- on and on they go.
Often the perpetrators are photography studios, PR companies, or ad agencies -- professionals who deal with sentimental images and emotional appeals all the time. How much do you want to bet that they're also grinding out tons of sparkly inspirational quotes?
If you want to connect with people on social media for business purposes, stick to the core values of authenticity, sincerity, and altruism. Share your industry expertise. Provide product selection tips, practical advice, commentary on news events that relate to your field.
Become the top of mind choice by continuously demonstrating that your company is a thought leader.
Be truly benevolent, without exploiting the photo of a child. Interact with other online community members in a kind and caring manner, posting comments that encourage and inspire people. The path of integrity and honesty will pay off in the long run, long after the spammers and hoaxers have vanished.
