There was something awfully familiar about some Facebook and Twitter posts I’ve seen from a few businesses in the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre, PA area.
They weren’t just familiar, they were exactly the same.
Word for word, picture for picture, the only thing different was the company name.
At first I didn’t pay much attention, until I saw followers commenting on the posts saying “Why are your status messages exactly the same as X, and X, and X, and X?”
I did some digging and what I came up with was nothing but pure, unadulterated laziness on behalf of the company doing the social media management for these businesses.
What kind of agency posts the same exact status message for every business they manage?
Not only was I shocked at what I saw, I was embarrased.
Embarassed for the company who is actually doing the work for these businesses, and ebmarassed for the businesses who are paying this company good money every month for, well… crap.
If you want to see exactly what I’m talking about, click on the links before for these businesses Facebook pages. Then look at their wall:
Dominos Pizza of NEPA – https://www.facebook.com/dominosnepa?ref=ts
Brutico’s of Old Forge – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000740640433
94.3 The Talker – https://www.facebook.com/pages/943-The-Talker/310816088136?sk=wall
105 The River – https://www.facebook.com/pages/105-The-River/74991172829?sk=wall
Samario’s of Scranton – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000596619540&sk=wall
Wyoming Valley Motors Mazda – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001907822618
Wyoming Valley Motors Porsche – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001894472567&ref=ts
Wyoming Valley Motors Volkswagon – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001865822638&sk=wall
Christmas Decor – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000774127703
There’s more, but that’s enough to prove my point.
When you hire a company to manage your social media, you expect them to provide your followers with interesting, unique and engaging content. None of these rehashed posts did anything except cause some followers to un-follow, which is shameful.
I can’t imagine any of the businesses mentioned above are happy with this type of social media management and frankly, they should feel cheated.
This should serve as a wake-up call for all business who out-source this type of work. Just because you let someone else do it, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be checking to make sure they’re doing their job and you’re getting your money’s worth.
If you’re not, you’re not doing your job!
In the interest of full disclosure, the company I work for provides Social Media Management services among other managed services for small businesses. The company providing the service to the businesses listed above is unknown to me and I’d rather keep it that way!