How many times this week have you been asked to LIKE someone’s Facebook Page..or Follow them on Twitters… so they can win a prize or something?

It seems this style of marketing is growing and the questions that develops around the effectiveness are mounting..What does the business who is offering the prize and the person out soliciting for them..Get out of all this? 

Naturally, the answer is the business gets a ton of worthless LIKES from people who just like pressing the LIKE button and the person out working for them gets a nice prize, for which there are so many hidden costs and red tape that they would have been better off just buying the airline ticket or prize themselves, now have an image just a step above a spammer. 

There really is no WIN – WIN to this..so why do businesses do this?  Gaining a following through a grass root campaign hs been proven over and over the best way to be seen in the market.

To cut to the chase..I have developed 3 Reasons why businesses need to quit asking people to enhance their digital foot print for a prize.

1.   Doesn’t Work!

First of all, the fact a business has to beg people to LIKE their social space should send warning bells off to anyone and everyone the business does not understanding social networking.  Their thinking that getting large numbers of people to LIKE them in an effort to increase the possibility of a sale is based on old school offline marketing thinking that …won’t it be cool to give away a free prize to a bunch of people for attending our event so we can sell them our produces.  This just does not work ONLINE. 

Gaining a false popularity means the business’ image and traditional marketing of their brand has failed.  Even if the business gets thousands or millions of people to click on their space..Follow them on Twitter..Like them on Facebook …or place them in their G+ Circle…the people who oblige them have NO LOYALITY to the product or business.  They are only there for the FREEBIES… 

2.   Creates Bad Will

What happens to the people who do not win the prize these business sets out to give away to the persons who deliver the most Likes..or whatever?  On the most part those who work hard and spend a lot of time bugging their friends, friends of friends, family, deceased members of their family, pets and complete strangers to LIKE a page and then do not win anything will turn on the business to start a negative comment campaign. 

Yes, this happens and is more or less a natural occurrence online.  It is a very high risk a business takes to gain a fake popularity.   The negative remarks create a shark feast and draws in the professional Trolls.  Within a few hours the business’ image is a floating carcass in their social space stripped of any trust or integrity.

On the most part..the Bad Will created will cause people to UNLIKE and leave the space because they don’t want to be involved in a Trollfest.

3.   Developing a False Image

I am sure many businesses are successfully gaining positive traction from the promotional campaigns they have established to gather up thousands of fans.  However, the tide is changing and businesses flying a flag on their Facebook page of having hundreds of thousands..in some cases, millions..of Likes is now turning consumers away. 

Social networking and social media have been around now for over eight years and during this time consumers have either been scammed to death or have learned from others how to avoid being scammed. 

This has developed in a huge mistrust amongst consumers of anything or anyone boosting they are the best, have the most or are the greatest.  Showing an astronomical..or unreal..number of Likes switches on the warning lights to consumers.  True..these businesses may have legitimately gathered up a solid core of fans, but the image of others who have not put forth an effort to gather support thru grass roots campaigns ruins the efforts of the legitimate fan gathering.

How Social Media Really Works

The correct and most effective way to go about gaining traction in the social spaces is to hire a manager or a team of managers who are the businesses evangelist.  Yes..this does result in a business spending money to hire someone but it does reduce the risk of gaining a bad reputation online. 

Community managers stay out on the frontline handling customer concerns and representing the business.  That is why it takes someone with more than a Facebook and Twitter account to handle this position.

The future of social media is very clear.  If a business not competitive online they are going to quickly fall behind.  The economy is pushing business and consumers to find more efficient ways to shop and do business.  Trying to get ahead by using old methods of marketing just will not hold up to the consumer’s demand for Trust.

Let’s get social people…let me know how I can help.