The Worst Phrase in the History of Marketing | Find us on Facebook

I bet you’re hearing this everywhere, “Find us on Facebook.”  I wanted to write this post to share why this strategy is so flawed.  I can’t take complete credit for this thought, since my friend Doug McIsaac says it all the time.

Here’s a perfect example. While doing some errands yesterday I had to go by Walmart.  When I looked at my receipt I was surprised to see not only the Walmart logo, but the Facebook logo too – followed by the phrase, “Find us on Facebook.”

If this makes sense to you,  keep reading to learn why this is a horrible idea.

Why brands should NEVER say, “Find us on Facebook.”

While we already know the Facebook search isn’t quite the best, they are partnering with Bing to improve it.  Check out the top 6 results when you search for Walmart.

  1. Is completely irrelevant (as far as I can tell.)
  2. Is Walmart (they’re not even ranking first for their own brand.)
  3. I hate Walmart.
  4. Some other crappy page.
  5. I hate Walmart some more.
  6. Walmart sucks

Think about it–

There’s the one result that makes sense and five others that essentially crap on the brand.  So the next time you think about saying, “Find us on Facebook.”  Think again and instead use your vanity URL.  Don’t know how to do that?  Check out this video by my friend Darin from [Productivity Junkies]

  • Nicole VJ Allen

    Great article Jonathan! Never thought about that phrase in those terms.I don’t use a vanity URL. Instead I use a simpler method: I create a forward from my domain TO my facebook page for example, instead of http://www.facebook.com/nicolevjallen, I use http://www.nicolevjallen.com/facebook. Hope this helps!N

  • That’s a really slick way to handle it Nicole- I like you style.

  • Fguitton

    I like Nicole’s idea! I also saw that they had their vanity URL but who uses a direct URL these days? I was speaking with clients and asked them to go to our site to do a live chat demo. When they came in I saw they had entered our URL in google search and came to us that way… Is that field on browsers useless?

  • I like Nicole’s idea! I also saw that they had their vanity URL but who uses a direct URL these days? I was speaking with clients and asked them to go to our site to do a live chat demo. When they came in I saw they had entered our URL in google search and came to us that way… Is that field on browsers useless?

  • I’m not so sure about it being useless, but maybe less useful. I find that I have the exact opposite problem. When I tell people to look me up at Real-TechGuy.com – they tend to type in the bar- http://www.realtechguy.com / which isn’t my site.

    Takes a savvier user to just use Google or “search” as a default.

  • I agree with your reasoning…but not your image (Walmart’s vanity URL is included on the receipt).

  • It’s not about the image as much as it is about the phrase Brittany.  “Find us on Facebook” is just plain lazy marketing.