The Most Shameless Way to Get Facebook Likes Is…
… say you’ll do something for a cause in return. Apparantly insurance company The Hartford never got that message.
The Hartford has been a sponsor of the U.S. Paralympic team, and that’s a good thing. They also just signed a multi-year deal to keep sponsoring Paralympic athletes.
But they are leveraging that sponsorship by donating $1 for every “Like” it receives on its new Facebook page (up to $500,000). And that’s wrong on many levels.
First, chances are The Hartford is already making a $500,000 donation to the Paralympic team. So masking that donation by saying they’re doing something in return for those likes is just wrong.
Second, once the 2011 Paralympics are over, how do they plan to keep those likers engaged? If they came in because they wanted to help The Hartford’s cause, they may not want to get “we’re better than AFLAC and/or Geico” pushes in the offseason.
If The Hartford wants to use social media to bring awareness to its cause, an the Paralympics, that’s great. But leveraging that partnership to get likes on Facebook isn’t going to do The Hartford any good.
