Trends and Insights

“Turn the comments off”. Bunnings uses Facebook only as an advertising platform – AND IT’S BRILLIANT2 minute read

Bunnings Warehouse uses it’s Facebook Page only as an advertising platform. Nothing more.

No posts.

Comments turned off.

Five images.

No apps or subpages.

No moderation needed.

No over-investment in low reach, low payoff social media channels.

As you can see below, that’s the entire extent of their “social media” page.

But take a quick look at their excellent advertising, pushed only to paid, targeted audiences.

Just a team of 50 people from all over the world managing their advertising account.

My friend and former colleague, Phil Gomes, used to often advise clients do exactly this.

Client: “We can’t set up a YouTube/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram channel! People will say nasty things about us in the comments”.

Phil: “Turn the comments off”

Sadly, the response was often: “You just don’t get it. Social media doesn’t work that way”.

Phil: “Yes it does”. Phil called these people the “You just don’t get it, do you? crew”.

Social media comments add little to no value to any part of business. There’s really no point having them there except to inflate the vanity metric of “engagement”. If – and it’s a big if – you must monitor feedback from customers, then there are significantly better channels: Surveys, Reviews, Third Party Fora, Industry Community Sites, Knowledgebases, Owned Feedback and Comments on your own website.

It wasn’t always this way, but over time, it’s entirely apparent that social media comments on your own channels are simply a waste of money, bad for the brand, and an incredible headache. Bunnings’ approach is really simple and effective.

Published by Constantine Frantzeskos

I build and grow global businesses, brands, and digital products with visionary marketing & digital strategy | Non-Executive Director | Startup investor and advisor | Techno-optimist