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Shooting Yourself In the Foot, 21st Century Style

Posted by timothy on from the only-with-long-arms-of-course dept.

rueger writes "Right now there's an election happening in British Columbia. A desperate government is flooding Facebook with "Sponsored Post" spam (example) extolling the wonderful things that they plan to do if re-elected. There's one problem though. Every one of these posts is followed by hundreds of extremely negative comments added by people who either dislike the party in question, or Facebook spam in general. Desperate moderators are trying to control the 'discussion,' but seem to have no hope of doing so. What was thought to be a cool marketing tool has turned into a public relations disaster. Is this the worst use of social media in an election?"

3 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Social media by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not just about social media, very few even understands simple marketing.
    You still see advertisements that try to force themselves onto people, not realizing that this creates a connection with discomfort and the product.

  2. Why would anyone be surprised by MikeLip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's just an indication that the sheer ignorance on the part of government of the use of the internet in general and social media in particular is world-wide. Hell, the people who dreamed up the idea probably think spam is a good mass marketing tool. Politicians are the same everywhere - disconnected and with a blind sense of entitlement.

  3. Re:Politics, still they don't get it by InterGuru · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We denigrate politicians because they lie, but candidates who tell the truth don't get elected.