Dear Nexium,
You sent me a really nice letter asking me to be your fan.
I don’t know; I’ll have to think about it. Hmmmm….
I guess the answer is no. Sorry, Nexium. It’s not you, it’s me. No, strike that. It’s you. This is not to bash the good people at AstraZeneca and the agency who came up with this idea, but I’ll have to take a rain check on this one.
Of your 23 discussions, 20 were started by you. I mean, you’re cute, you’re purple, you’ve got those nice gold/mustard stripes. But you seem to think a lot of yourself, and it doesn’t seem to be shared—at least by what I can tell on Facebook. You have 2500 or so fans–not too bad by industry-sponsored fansite standards.
But I can understand being a fan of Captain Sully Sullenberger, who has nearly 600,000 fans and dozens of discussions, none started by him. Someone wrote a song about him, and a few people would like to see him run for president. Has anyone written a song about you, Nexium (jingles don’t count)? Does anyone want to see you run for president?
Lady Gaga has more than 6 million fans, and I can win “The Ultimate Gaga Prize Pack.” Even “If Mr. Bean was Lady Gaga, he’d look something like this…” has 350,000 fans and counting. (That’s 140x the number of fans you have, Nexium.) If I so desired, I could get photos of Mr. Bean, put bizarre wigs and outlandish dresses on him, and hilarity would (supposedly) ensue.
So what can I do on your Facebook page, Nexium? Hmmmm…? Well, I can read through that long list of discussions, which looks suspiciously like standard newsletter copy plugging the purple pill. (On Facebook, you really do come across as thinking a bit too much of yourself.) I can get prescription savings, which “may be just a purple card away!” But you sent your fan request by email; couldn’t you have sent a coupon by email? Then I’d be “just a link away!” from savings. And I wouldn’t be required to give up my Facebook profile information, photos, my friends’ info, and the rather scary “any other content” that access demands (for far too many Facebook apps, by the way).
And did you know that every single comment on your wall takes me back to the suspiciously-newsletter-like discussion page? So what can I do on your site, besides read about you? I can take a poll on what causes me the most stress (work, balancing work and family life, and paying bills). “All of the above” is conspicuously missing, but is this poll anything more than fishing for your next newsletter-on-Facebook topics?
So Nexium, despite what I said above, it’s not really about you. It’s about marketers who are pushed to “do social media” and end up putting a newsletter on Facebook. Social media isn’t a destination; it’s an interaction. It’s a statement about who we are. It’s venting or celebrating. It’s not a new spot for a newsletter.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some retouching work to do on a photo of Mr. Bean.
Sincerely yours in trying not to kill social media,
Pharmadude
Pharmadude 