Social Media Disorganization at State Department
August 6, 2013
Well, that’s a novel use of taxpayer money. Australia’s News.com reveals, “U.S. State Department Spent $690,000 to ‘Buy’ Facebook ‘Likes’.”(That’s about $630,000 in U.S. dollars.) According to a report from the U.S. State Department‘s Inspector General, over the last three years the agency spent this money to buy social-media “likes.” Perhaps one can buy love?
Er, not really. The tactic did not work well, even before Facebook started charging to push content to a page’s fans as well as non-fans. The practice ceased only when the change at the social site prompted a change in strategy. Actually it turns out that “strategy” is too strong a word. The write-up tells us:
“The report also stated that the bureau did not have a social media strategy. Various State Department bureaus had over 150 social media accounts that were uncoordinated and often overlapping.”
That is discouraging; no wonder there was trouble. The article specifies:
“The State Department’s Facebook page likes increased during the spending from 100,000 to more than 2 million and to 450,000 on Facebook’s foreign-language pages.
“Despite the increase, the IG said the spending did not reach the bureau’s target audience, mainly older and more influential people. Only about 2 per cent of the department’s fans engaged with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting.”
The Inspector General also reports that many in the Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs, the division responsible for the non-existent social media strategy, voiced objections to the approach. That is something. Perhaps their voices will be heard as the agency develops that strategy, as they surely must be doing after this misstep. Right?
Cynthia Murrell, August 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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