I see on Facebook the old ‘I will make you Popular if you make me Popular’ game has finally arrived in the form of ‘Like Exchange’. Now a couple of the Golf Pages on Facebook feel this game helps them..somehow! Geez, people, what part of Social do you Not understand?
It is true, golf online is not really a mainstream interest for many who populate the social space on Facebook. However, this doesn’t mean the things used in the ‘Hey Check This Out’ market online is applicable to golfer’s interests. The golfers in my community I have been showing these type of Facebook Pages that say they will Like your page if you Like their page are completely…I mean TOTALLY..turned off with these pages attempting to get them to fall for this tactic.
The give away to the trivialness of this method of artificially pumping up someone’s Facebook Page popularity is shown in the type of people, places and things that swarm to these pages to be part of the feeding frenzy of possible customers. What does a health food or an MLM got to do with playing golf or for anything for that matter? That is who is flocking to these Like Exchanges for Golf Pages. Are these the people you want to LIKE your FB Page? I didn’t think so.
Change Is Hard For Many to Make
Marketing in the social space is changing quickly to a more sound method of socializing instead of the ‘billboard’ style marketing set up to get people’s attention. So, why do people still insist on contriving a following of friends that really are not friends and then think that the people who Liked their Facebook page are going to Buy Something from them? Bigger questions is..why do people feel scamming people into Like-ing a page is socializing?
Andy Gonzalez over at SocialMediaToday said it best about the Facebook Like My Page fad…
This "Like Exchange" is an easy way to create a followship. However, the engagement level of that followship is yet to be determined. My hunch is that the "likes" your page receives through this process will be no more than a number. That number will do nothing more than provide your page with a small level of credibility. As a community manager and social media guy, I would MUCH rather have 100 engaged followers than 1000 random, non-targeted, unengaged Facebook users on my "like" list. This "like exchange" reminds me of the "follow trains" that were used on Myspace a few years back. Not that the likes you receive are from spam bots (this is how the Myspace follow chains worked) but in the low level of interaction you receive after signing up. In my opinion, tools like this will do very little to aid your company in social marketing.
I am with Andy it this method of developing ‘Numbers’ is a complete waste of time. The proof is in the pudding and engaging in conversation with people on Facebook is how the pudding is made. Hope more Golfers and golf businesses will learn to understand this. If not…let me know how I can help.
