Last Friday I see a “post by others” on our Fan page. It’s by one of our biggest vendors (the oldest largest manufacturer of bird cages on the planet) and says “Take advantage of free shipping day with our retailers” links to our website as well as Walmart & Petco are included in the post. I immediately hide the post and email the CEO of the posting vendor (I’m very friendly with him) and explain the situation, here’s the thread
Hi Rick 

Posts like these are not helpful to branded FB posts – An individual post on a handful of pages would have been more appropriate – thanx (please see attached) (I included a screen shot of the now hidden post)

Mitch:Please explain what we did wrong here.  I don’t understand and certainly don’t want to be doing anything wrong.Thanks,Rick

RickWe’re spending hundreds of dollars per month (about .30 each) to acquire these fans and I’d prefer not to recommend they visit Petco or Walmart. It would be like us posting on the Prevue wall that we offer bird cages with free shipping from Prevue, HQ & AE with links to those sites. Facebook is about branding – thanx

MitchI now understand what your’e eluding to here.  We should have a conversation where you can enlighten us as to how to “Play Fair” to ALL our Internet Customers.  What I think you’re saying is there’s a problem with inclusion and I’m saying there’s a problem with Exclusion too.  How do we solve this?  I’m not being facetious here, I really trying to understand how to do this correctly to benefit all.  Help!!!!Rick

This is a major brand (Prevue) seeking “best practices” in SM marketing to his customers (Walmart & Petco) – any input would be welcome – thank you

@mitch-rezman thats  gross….we never got that  exaactly   but we face similar  problems  all the time …the  companies  sell to us and   the  big box companies…..the  big  guys  get  it  cheaper  naturally and under sell us…….even  worse in my  world  some of  the  big  companies  have   retail websites….AND  put  their websites on the  tags  of  the items we  get  and  sell to  our  customers…..

hope  you  made your point  to the owner….

good for you mitch,.. those box stores are killing all the independents in canada as well.. and yes logistics is a big bone of contention in any business.. loyalty used to be important.. now everyone is unto their own island with no paddles..perhaps u can create a situation where many small companies get together and make a plan to use AAA shipping company since volume is the name of the game and can receive better discounts.

in canada it’s much worse..our freight rates are over the moon.. 

i won’t get into the discussion about the fact we are the hardest hit country for rates for cell phone usage..it’s called a monopoly..am wishing for the day usa banks and communication companies trounce our banks and communication corps..

This isn’t a social media problem – it’s business common-sense etiquette!  @mitch-rezman  Ask them if they would, at your physical store, greet people coming in (as your vendor) and tell them your products were on sale at Walmart?  So tacky!  People don’t understand that you do the same things on someone’s Fan Page as if it were a virtual store.  You’ve built it (yes Facebook hosts it) but you’ve built the audience. 

I didn’t find a specific example to link to share with her – I wrote this post a long time ago and it mentions not posting your own website on other people’s pages which is sort of similar: http://www.momeomagazine.com/business-101-you-weren%E2%80%99t-raised-in-a-barn-%E2%80%93-get-some-social-skills-how-to-avoid-committing-the-social-media-sins/

Makes me think we need a post about this!