State Department buys Facebook 'Likes' for $630,000

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**d-usa**

Via Washington Examiner:

State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook "likes," prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was "buying fans" in social media, the agency's inspector general says.

The department's Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its "likes" count between 2011 and March 2013.

"Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as 'buying fans' who may have once clicked on an ad or 'liked' a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further," the inspector general reported.

The spending increased the bureau's English-language Facebook page likes from 100,000 to more than 2 million and to 450,000 on Facebook's foreign-language pages.

Despite the surge in likes, the IG said the effort failed to reach the bureau's target audience, which is largely older and more influential than the people liking its pages. Only about 2 percent of fans actually engage with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting.

In September 2012 Facebook also changed its approach to users' news feeds, and the expensive "fan" campaigns became much less valuable. The bureau now must constantly pay for sponsored ads to keep its content visible even to people who have already liked its pages.

Another problem with the bureau's social media outreach is a lack of strategy for reaching the right audience, the report said.

"The absence of a Department wide PD [public diplomacy] strategy tying resources to priorities directly affects IIP's work. Fundamental questions remain unresolved. What is the proper balance between engaging young people and marginalized groups versus elites and opinion leaders?" the IG said.

Not only does the bureau lack its own social media strategy, but various State Department bureaus have more than 150 social media accounts that are uncoordinated and often overlap, according to the IG.

Those likes could have paid for half a day in Africa!

**MrDwhitey**

I laughed like a rabid Hyena being put down with overdoses of Ecstasy.

The Government buying likes on facebook. Wow.

**Aerethan**

d-usa wrote:
Via Washington Examiner:

State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook "likes," prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was "buying fans" in social media, the agency's inspector general says.

The department's Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its "likes" count between 2011 and March 2013.

"Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as 'buying fans' who may have once clicked on an ad or 'liked' a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further," the inspector general reported.

The spending increased the bureau's English-language Facebook page likes from 100,000 to more than 2 million and to 450,000 on Facebook's foreign-language pages.

Despite the surge in likes, the IG said the effort failed to reach the bureau's target audience, which is largely older and more influential than the people liking its pages. Only about 2 percent of fans actually engage with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting.

In September 2012 Facebook also changed its approach to users' news feeds, and the expensive "fan" campaigns became much less valuable. The bureau now must constantly pay for sponsored ads to keep its content visible even to people who have already liked its pages.

Another problem with the bureau's social media outreach is a lack of strategy for reaching the right audience, the report said.

"The absence of a Department wide PD [public diplomacy] strategy tying resources to priorities directly affects IIP's work. Fundamental questions remain unresolved. What is the proper balance between engaging young people and marginalized groups versus elites and opinion leaders?" the IG said.

Not only does the bureau lack its own social media strategy, but various State Department bureaus have more than 150 social media accounts that are uncoordinated and often overlap, according to the IG.

Those likes could have paid for half a day in Africa!

They should have asked Resin Forge where they buy theirs, could have gotten a deal or something.

**LoneLictor**

Aerethan is right, they're getting ripped off.

I wouldn't mind them buying likes if they were being smarter about it.

**KalashnikovMarine**

Should I be worried that professional diplomats can't get people to like them without throwing money around?

**Breotan**

Wait... does this mean that Mandelbaum works for the government now?

**Ouze**

If I had read that some renegade state department workers had run up $630,000 on their government issue credit cards, and they had blown it largely on cocaine, prostitutes, and comic books, I'd be less annoyed than reading they blew it on Facebook likes, because at least they got something worthwhile in the first example.

**timetowaste85**

This is disgusting. And pathetic. Whoever wasted money on that sort of crap should be thrown out of office. That money could be used in many places that are all better than FB likes. Stupid official is stupid. Needs castration too. Don't want that kinda stupidity to breed.

-edit: yes, I'm back to requesting the castration of incredibly stupid people like the above example.

**hotsauceman1**

Why are people so upset? The govt is making jobs, just what we want to happen

**Ouze**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Why are people so upset? The govt is making jobs, just what we want to happen

Do you think Americans are creating all the fake profiles needed to generate 2 million likes? They could have spend that money in this country, instead of Kolkata or Pune or Bangladesh or whatever. Hell, even going back to my prostitutes, cocaine, and comic books scenario, at least you'd be keeping that money here, in the seedy back alleys of America.

**hotsauceman1**

Im being sarcastic.

**Ouze**

Sorry, I rolled a one.

**sebster**

That's a lot of money for 2 million facebook likes. There's photos floating around facebook of kids asking for bikes with more than 2,000,000 likes.

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Should I be worried that professional diplomats can't get people to like them without throwing money around?

Isn't that pretty much what rich country diplomacy is?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ouze wrote:
Do you think Americans are creating all the fake profiles needed to generate 2 million likes?

What fake profiles? By the story, they just spent the money on advertising and other social networking nonsense, leading people to claim they were 'buying likes'.

**d-usa**

They could have just had a picture of Obama holding a sign that read "Boehmer said that if this page gets 2,000,000 likes he will impeach me" and watch their likes explode.

**Breotan**

d-usa wrote:
They could have just had a picture of Obama holding a sign that read "Boehmer said that if this page gets 2,000,000 likes he will impeach me" and watch their likes explode.

It's funny 'cause it's true.

**Ouze**

sebster wrote:
What fake profiles? By the story, they just spent the money on advertising and other social networking nonsense, leading people to claim they were 'buying likes'.

Oh, I didn't even read the story, I just assumed - it's a real time saver.

**sebster**

Ouze wrote:
Oh, I didn't even read the story, I just assumed - it's a real time saver.

**LoneLictor**

sebster wrote:
Ouze wrote:
Oh, I didn't even read the story, I just assumed - it's a real time saver.

What Ouze does is nothing. I don't even read thread titles.

I don't care what OP says, deporting the southern pacific islanders would fix all this mess.

**Gentleman_Jellyfish**

LoneLictor wrote:
sebster wrote:
Ouze wrote:
Oh, I didn't even read the story, I just assumed - it's a real time saver.

What Ouze does is nothing. I don't even read thread titles.

I don't care what OP says, deporting the southern pacific islanders would fix all this mess.

I don't care about what your post says, Tyranids are underpowered in 6th and need a new codex before any other!

**Dreadclaw69**

I'm so glad that the State Department used their budget to purchase something of value..... I don't remember the last time I looked at a FB page to see how many likes it had outside of RF.