Paying for Your Friends

No, "paying for your friends" doesn't mean that you have just joined a Greek letter organization, but in this case, it isn't too far off. According to a recent article in Ad Age, there are a number of services popping up within the marketing industry that are offering brands their services to literally pay for their Facebook friends and fans. Seems to be exactly what Facebook is not supposed to be for brands who have built their fan pages through this type of media, however, brands are beginning to see the value of utilizing this media to connect with their consumers and are starting to pay for them. Offering brands this type of service will only cheapen those brands that have been able to build their fan base online.

It is this kind of inauthenticity that will taint the online executions of this kind. We will no longer be able to judge how accurate fan or friend pages of brands are if we are allowing brands the ability to pay for followers. Not to put Chick-fil-A on repeat, but one of the most amazing things about the brand is their true fan base that they have built (not bought), and in fact, they have more fans on Facebook than Oprah. OPRAH. Doesn't that say that it is possible to build a fan base online without buying them if you have the right message and strategy that relates to your consumers? Of course, and consumers can undoubtedly tell which brands have been built and which have been bought.

TGI Friday's is the latest company to fall victim to trying to "buy" their presence on Facebook. So far, they are not exactly paying for their friends, but they might as well be. They have created a character named "Woody" who is a real life guy that has become TGI Friday's new mascot of sorts and is being featured in a slew of commercials and online executions (all which you can see on his Facebook Fan Page). His mission is to gain friends on Facebook. He is approaching everyone (young and old) to convince them that they need to friend him on Facebook and in turn, these consumers will be rewarded with a free Jack Daniel's sandwich. But only once his count reaches 500,000 followers of course (and corporate has enough email addresses to harass 500,000 consumers in the future). While this Woody character is not as bad as just buying these 500,000 consumers, bribing doesn't seem so cool either.

It seems incredibly inauthentic that TGI Friday's has taken this route to gain consumer fans on Facebook. Who is Woody really? And besides a free sandwich, what do I get for being his fan? Well, according to his profile, he is a young guy from Virginia who is very passionate about TGI Friday's and if he gets these 500,000 fans by Sept. 30th then everyone that has become his friend will get a free voucher for a Jack Daniel's sandwich at the restaurant. But you are required to enter your email address can you register for a free sandwich and of course, you must be over 21. While the fan page is filled with Woody centered information, it is obvious that this is a planted effort by the restaurant and it is very low on branded tactics. This would makes sense if this was a real guy who was sharing his true passion, but alas, he is just a likely brainchild of someone at corporate who thinks that consumers can't tell the difference.

As we have seen with the overwhelming fans of other brands on social networks, success in a brand comes from the genuine love from consumers. If this were a guy from Chick-fil-A (and because their fans actually DO devote their lives to loving them) it would feel more on brand than TGI Friday's execution, which is why this seems rather laughable. There is no doubt that consumers love free stuff, and if TGI Friday's is willing to start giving away burgers and chicken sandwiches then there has to be a better way to gain consumer attention than to shove some made up character in there face online. Consumers are not fools. This we have learned. While brands continue to use online social space to communicate with their consumers it is imperative that they move forward in a way that does not buy or bribe, but builds this consumer base in an authentic way that is truly representative that the passion they exude for these brands.

If you build it (not buy it) THEN they will come...