I feel like the title invites a kneejerk reaction, but its entirely possible this was the best way the State Department had to increase their accessibility.
Developing a presence on social media, sure. Buying "likes"..? I'd need to see a convincing case that this helps in any way.
To me it sounds like a way of 'juking the stats', as they would say in The Wire. A way for the people who created the social media program to report to the higher-ups that "things are working really well, see, we have millions of people liking us and using our pages!"
After the 2011 reorganization, the coordinator initiated a push to expand the bureau's presence on social media and other digital platforms. IIP started or expanded English-language Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and blogs aimed directly at foreign audiences. The bureau also started or expanded online activities in six foreign languages.
The coordinator initiated two campaigns in 2011 and 2012, with the goal of building global outreach platforms for engagement with foreign audiences by increasing the number of fans on IIP's four thematic Facebook properties, primarily through advertising as well as through some page improvements. The bureau spent about $630,000 on the two campaigns and succeeded in increasing the fans of the English Facebook pages from about 100,000 to more than 2 million for each page. Advertising also helped increase interest in the foreign language pages; by March 2013, they ranged from 68,000 to more than 450,000 fans.
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. Defenders of advertising point to the difficulty of finding a page on Facebook with a general search and the need to use ads to increase visibility.
Given that the State Department is the authority that issues visas for travel to the US, operates embassies and so on, a lot of the end users are not taxpayers.
Why does anyone care about fans/friends on facebook. Such a waste of our societies capitol.
Failed to get the right audience? Lack of clear goals? Wrong strategy? Unfortunately, par for the course in marketing ...
But part of it just seems like a fool's plan. There's a sneaking suspicion (OK, from me, at least) that they've paid money for a lot of magic beans without any real way to measure ROI.
What's the point of this? Spending $100,000+ per person? For what, so they can go back to their country and hopefully speak well of the US? And then our reputation improves there... so what?
Maybe these programs are just bargaining chips as part of a larger trade negotiation that brings in far more for the US. I'm not sure of that. But I really question the extent of our foreign involvement -- is it really for the best interests of the American people? Or just the best interests of American corporations?
You could argue the long game, I guess, that the State Department, in those 1 million likes, will inspire at least 100 Facebook users to the delights of the State Department who may not have paid attention through other channels...and that's the argument you can make with any PR campaign. In the defense of Facebook spending, you can at least argue that the eyeballs-reached/engaged is quantifiable, which you can't with most forms of glorified PR campaigns.