"Like us on Facebook!"

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I'm noticing more and more on billboards and in advertisements on radio/TV and even online that companies are prominently asking people to swing by their Facebook page and give them a "like".

While I understand the concept here, I think it's kind of silly. If I genuinely like a business, I may indicate so on Facebook, but I'm not about to do so just to win some prize or get some lame discount or "special offers". I'm not a marketing shill and I refuse to be an (unpaid) marketing shill for a company using my Facebook account unless I had a good first hand experience there and choose to spread the word.

Having a social media presence is a wise idea for any business but companies do not live or die by Facebook. I imagine there's a bunch of people who have "liked" companies and have no intention of ever doing business with them at all.

[AdminAssistant]

A lot of companies also give out discounts and coupons through their Facebook pages. My favorite frozen yogurt place had a thing where, if they got a certain number of Likes, they'd give a 75% discount code to everyone on their Facebook page. Or you get a coupon if you 'share' a status. There's also a really good local restaurant that operates out of a gas station. The chef/owner is trying to save up to rent a better location with better equipment, and therefore doesn't have the money for a website. So, he uses the Facebook page to announce menu changes, catering deals, and daily specials.

[jackfaire]

Having a social media presence is a wise idea for any business but companies do not live or die by Facebook.

Actually they do. It's word of mouth advertising. Do you know why commercials are effective. Because people talk about them, joke about them and get the company name out there.

The biggest source of business for any company is regular joes like you and me chatting them up. Taking it digital is brilliant. "Hey if you like our business click like so that every single friend you have suddenly sees that and checks us out."

The fault of liking businesses you have never done business with is on the person doing the clicking not the business. Just watch negativity kills a business. Positivity can make it the Roxbury

[bainsidhe]

My biggest hate about "liking" a company on FB is that I suddenly receive all their spam. I don't post much, mostly because I'm not a big FB-er, but also because I don't like posting under my given name for the world to see. The ONE TIME I "liked" a lotion company on FB so I could get a free sample, I'm suddenly bombarded with posts about what the company is doing, their new products, blah blah blah. I got at least 2-3 posts per day from the same damn company.

"Liking" results in spam. I hate spam. Any company that bombards me with junk posts can DIAF.

[AdminAssistant]

If you think you're receiving too many posts from a company, you can always 'Hide' their updates. Personally, I wouldn't consider 2-3 posts/day spam, but then I'm on Facebook a lot.

[blas87]

I've kind of stopped "liking" a lot of random things like soda pop and candy and other restaurants because I can never take them up on their offers.

Any offers I get via email, I usually print out or save the code to my phone and use them if I can that weekend. Old Navy for the win, every time.

[bainsidhe]

Personally, I wouldn't consider 2-3 posts/day spam, but then I'm on Facebook a lot.

What bugged me was thsi was 2-3 posts per day from a single company. Imagine if I'd "liked" 10 companies? Or 50? I don't want to sift through spam just so I can find an update from my friends.

Of course, I didn't realize I could hide a company's updates either. *shrugs* I really don't FB much.

[Andara Bledin]

I've liked about... oh... maybe 100 different company, band, and celebrity pages on Facebook. And most of the people in my friends list play a number of games I don't care about, too. Hell, I'm pretty sure when I'm in the mood to play the game apps I have installed I end up "spamming" all of my contacts, too.

It's honestly not that difficult to figure out which ones you care about and which ones you just want to be able to check on once in a while and tailor your feed accordingly.

Plus, you can see what their posting pattern is before you ever click the like button, so how many posts hit your feed shouldn't really be a surprise.

^-.-^