Ummmmm… I already live in New York City (and Facebook knows this). I don’t need a trip to here. And by the way, what value does Buick get from me “liking” them just to win a free trip? It doesn’t mean I actually like them.  It means I’m clicking a button to try to win a free trip.  In reality, it is Buick’s way of forcing their social media “outreach” (advertising) into as many news feeds as possible. 

Until recently, I mistakenly thought that the individual relevance of Facebook advertising would be a fundamental improvement over Google display ads.  But based on this Buick example, I’m concerned that Facebook’s targeting is flawed, and that brands still don’t fully understand the value of social media platforms like Facebook.  The idea isn’t to trick random people into “liking” the brand. The value of Facebook (or other social networking sites) is to leverage the power of existing fans of your brand, help them to connect with fellow humans who share their passion, and to cultivate the collective voice of these true brand ambassadors. Buick (and other brands) should be focusing their Facebook outreach on these people, instead of tricking uninterested individuals into clicking a like button just to win a free trip.  

At best, Buick will have gained an inactive “fan” that counts toward their social media metrics. At worst, the new “like” will realize they don’t have any interest in Buick and they’ll “unlike” them (if they can find the unlike button buried deep on the brand Facebook page). 

I don’t mean to pick on Buick, because A LOT of brands do this on Facebook.  This is just a culmination of frustrations with the way Facebook is being used by marketers.