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US State Department spends $630,000 to generate Facebook likes

The US State Department apparently spent $630,000 to generate increased likes on Facebook.

The strategy resulted in the State Department's Facebook page being liked by two million people (up from 100,000 prior to the campaign's start in 2011).

While they are being criticized for the ad spend, I don't think it's all that bad (at least for a government agency). You're looking at less than 50 cents to generate a like and ultimately up to two million people viewed your content.

The value / hope behind the program, at least I would suspect, would be for those impressions to continue on long after the ad campaign ended.  If they were attempting to form a 'base' upon which they could build into the future, then an initial spend of half-a-mil isn't unreasonable.

What is strange however is that apparently their goal was to reach an 'older and influential' target audience. If that's their goal I don't know why they would choose Facebook to do so (who knows, maybe in exchange for Facebook handing over all private information of their users to the NSA, the government kicks some advertising bucks their way).

Either way, I think the criticism of this program (based on what facts are known) is a bit overkill.

What's disgusting is spending trillions to blow people up around the world or letting bankers crash the economy and then bailing them out with trillions. Half-a-million to try and increase your communications outreach with key constituents is way down the list of things I'd count as government waste.  

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