After the State Department’s Bureau of International Information reorganized in 2011, its coordinator launched an effort to expand State’s social media presence to engage foreign audiences, spending about $630,000 on two Facebook-related campaigns, the State Department inspector general has said.
The amount of money being spend has drawn criticism from some who have characterized the effort as merely "buying fans" who have no real interest in sustaining engagement. Supporters point to the difficulty of even finding a page on Facebook with a general search and the need to use ads to increase visibility, the IG noted.
It said the campaigns increased fans of the English Facebook pages from about 100,000 to more than 2 million for each page. Advertising helped increase interest in the foreign language pages as well.
By March 2013, the number of fans ranged from 68,000 to more than 450,000 among various State Department Facebook pages. Its English language Facebook pages had over 2.5 million fans each, but those engaging with each page more than once a week hovered around just 2 percent.
If a user stops interacting with one of these Facebook pages, the feeds cease to appear in their news feed – or on their own pages, so there’s little point in spending to acquire fans.
However, IIP has since targeted the bulk of its sponsored story ads in a way most likely to boost engagement statistics, the IG said. The IG suggested that the bureau consider reducing spending and increasing strategic impact by focusing its advertising not on raising overall fan numbers or general engagement statistics but on accomplishing specific goals.
