U.S State Department Spent $630,000 On Facebook Like Campaigns

It is well known that businesses often buy Facebook likes to make themselves more popular, or sponsor advertising campaigns to get more likes. The U.S State department, according to a report,spent a whopping $630,000 between 2011 and early 2013 on sponsoring advertising on Facebook to get more likes, shares and comments on its material.

The U.S State department didn’t directly “buy likes” according to this report but instead sponsored questionable advertising campaigns resulting in an abundance of likes. The campaign increased likes on a variety of U.S state department pages from 100,000 to nearly two million yet engagement levels remained abysmally low.

“Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as ‘buying fans’ who may have once clicked on an ad or ‘liked’ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further” Stated the agency’s inspector general in the report.

Given the relatively fragile state of the U.S economy since 2008 you’d of thought the U.S government might have had more sense than to shovel nearly three quarters of a million down the toilet in wasted Facebook likes. Apparently not. Rest assured that while everyone takes some time to bash the U.S government over this, many other governments (and companies) are probably up to the same sordid tricks.

Image courtesy of the U.S State Department