Confessions of a Facebook marketing addict

My name is Kevin, and I’m a Facebook marketing addict.

Starting in 2012, I worked with brand managers who paid for fans and paid for their brand’s content to be seen. It gave me great joy to report back to those brand managers that our fan bases were growing. It gave me greater joy to report that our sponsored posts were breaking records for the most “likes” of any post in the brand’s history.

My clients loved me, cheered my efforts, and sang praises to my agency overlords.

I now know that I was living a lie.

Get ’em hooked

I recently took a look at the fan base for one of the brands I managed. (Left the job a year ago; still listed as an administrator. Pro tip: Remember to update those when employees leave.)

Among the top five countries where people “like” that brand are Iran, Egypt, and India. This brand’s product is not available in those countries. I repeat: You cannot purchase this product in those countries, and yet several thousand people in those countries have given permission to this brand to post its marketing messaging in their news feeds.