Today’s guest post comes from Allison Najman (@mbagrrl) You can visit her site to stalk her learn more about her. When she’s not being snarky for this blog, Allison is defying online marketer and social media guru stereotypes.
Do you like me? Do you really like me?
Do you bribe your friends to hang out with you? I didn’t think so.
That’s what brands are doing with a Facebook tactic known as like-gating (only being able to see content on a page if you “like” it).
As marketer, I completely understand the temptation to like-gate, it forces people to like you (even if they really don’t), it makes brands’ fan numbers look good and justifies social media budgets to the big wigs. I can hear the executive oohs and ahhs: “We have 157% more fans than we did last year without improving our content or investing more money!?! That’s fantastic.” But all the smart social media people out there reading this know that social media success is not just about how many followers or fans you have, right? RIGHT? (If you don’t believe this, then you have bigger problems than like-gating.)
Now, I am not completely a hippy-dippy communist and believe everything should be free and include puppies and rainbows. I do think like-gating has its place. I understand you want more from me to be BFFs rather than casual acquaintances. But convince me you are worthy of my valuable stream real estate between Farmville updates and what my high school best friend’s cat had for lunch before I add you to my life. Give me a preview of what our relationship could be and make me want more rather than pretending to be under a shroud of mystery.
As with any relationship, don’t you want people to like you for who you are and not because they are forced to? Be yourself and put out good and engaging content and your true fans, those who genuinely like you for you are, will come.
Anti-Social Media