Should Facebook be more honest?
There is a great mantra that good direct marketers live by, “make the important measurable NOT the measurable important.”
Yet the web has given us lots of useless numbers that can often give us a false sense of marketing success.
Tesco’s may well brag about the number of Facebook ‘LIKES’ it has (334,692) but here’s the truth…
Many consumers are using Tesco’s Facebook site to criticise Tesco’s (according to an article in the Grocer 1/3rd of active users)? Be honest, how many of us have ‘liked’ a page just to post a complaint and make a critical comment? Most of us I suspect. Facebook has become the ultimate complaints department.
Remember the age old avoidance tactic of many brands when you call up to complain that there’s a amputated thumb in your meat pie, “I’m sorry you feel that way sir, if you’d like to write in we’ll investigate your complaint.”
“Sorry you feel that way!?”, “there’s a finger in my pie!” I exclaim, and it’s pointing at me! That’s not a feeling but a fact.”
But now we can air our views to thousands of other Facebook members, assuming they are actually reading the comments.
So how about Facebook adding a few more buttons like
HATE,
I’M HERE TO COMPLAIN,
I’M ONLY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OFFERS,
I’VE BEEN CONNED INTO LIKING THIS PAGE AND HAVE NO INTENTION OF EVER COMING BACK.
And, I”M SAD AND LONELY AND FIND LIKING BRAND FACEBOOK SITES MAKES ME FEEL WANTED.
My most recent visit to a Facebook site was to Staples. Now according to Staples I’m a LIKE but in fact I am now a DISLIKE and a very ex-customer!
Here’s the post.
Does Facebook LIKES mean anything at all? With consumers using Facebook to complain, maybe it’s time Facebook introduced a DISLIKE button.
