Tim LeakeBribing a "like" is unlikeable
Editor's Note: The Yahoo! Advertising blog recently asked several agency leaders one question: "How are you integrating social media into your creative?" Here is the response from Tim Leake, Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi New York and Hyper Island Speaker
As advertisers, we're slowly coming to the realization that people believe what their friends say about brands more than they believe what brands say about themselves. And Facebook's "Like" button is a wonderfully simple way for people to give us a thumbs-up.
Problem is, advertisers are doing what advertisers so often do: We're ruining a good thing.
"Liking" a brand on Facebook should be the equivalent of raising a hand and shouting, "Hi there! I'm a brand advocate."
Instead, way too many folks are simply trying to collect as many "likes" as possible. And this has led to a horribly popular thing called "incentivized likes." Basically, brands force you to "like" them in order to get access to whatever content is on their page. In the worst form of this, the incentive is a chance to win a prize of some kind.
Of course you get more "likes" this way. But 50,000 brand advocates who love you are way more powerful than 500,000 people who are indifferent. Collecting rectangular pieces of paper is not the same as collecting money.
The bigger problem is that this practice will ultimately ruin it for everyone, because millions of people are "liking" brands that they don't actually like. I have actually seen friends "like" a brand that I know they actively hate, in order to get some short-term reward. And pretty soon, people will realize this is happening. And when that happens, a "like" won't be worth anything at all.
Rewarding people for being fans is totally different than bribing people to become fans.
"Like" this article if, and only if, you actually like it.
-- Christian Chensvold
Christian Chensvold is a New York-based writer covering business, lifestyle and culture. He blogs at Ivy-Style.com
