We’re not naming names here, though it’s not a secret that many ecommerce merchants are buying Facebook “fans.” Though this can be a shaky bridge to cross, this isn’t an article bashing ecommerce merchants who buy Facebook “fans;” it’s a conversation starter to better understand the state of the social media industry and whether ecommerce companies who are buying their Facebook “likes” are: 1) benefiting (how are you qualifying purchased “likes” ?) 2) feeling that it’s ethical?
Benefits?
First, let’s look at why ecommerce merchants would want to buy Facebook “fans” in the first place. Easy answer, right!? “To get more potential customers!” Not necessarily. Many of ecommerce merchants who are buying their “likes” aren’t really qualifying them, so what other reason could there be to justify the expenditures.
Businesses shouldn’t care about having friends unless they’re somehow useful, right? If you’ve heard of the “Theory of Social Validation”, then you know that JUST having friends is half the battle. Of course, the other half is having friends that count, but those are more likely to come along if they see others are already there.
Plus, it would be a bit of an embarrassment to some of the larger companies to debut a Facebook pages with only a few friends, so buying Facebook fans might be a good way to begin growing a page without going through all the strains and pressures that organic growth can create. No social media manager wants the pressure of growing a Facebook fan page for a large company that expects to see an exponential growth trend, based simply on it’s bricks & mortar reputation.
Is it ethical?
To address the ethics of buying Facebook fans: haven’t businesses always bought their friends; when we consider the term “friends” as synonymous with “customers?” As much as the outdoor adventure enthusiasts would like to think that Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia’s founder) is personally tying friendship knots on Patagonia’s Facebook Fan Page or that President Obama is clocking in at 6:34am (the time of “his” last post) to palaver to his Barack Obama Facebook Fans, can it be true?! Maybe, but in most cases, it’s probably more likely that a social marketing team is behind the curtain yanking the levers. Do people get upset about that? Not really–it’s expected. The same is probably true for fans who join a company’s Fan page; they don’t scrutinize the fan list, or really care where the other fans come from.
While you may be waiting for a categorical “Yes, buying Fans is OK” or “No, you sneaky merchant, it’s not,” we WANT you, the ecommerce merchant, to weigh in on this, so please take the time to log your opinion as a comment to this blog. Would you purchase Facebook Fans?
