I think what "I'm trying to accomplish" is fairly well stated in most of my posts. It is bad business practice plain and simple. It will catch up with them eventually. There are a limited number of pinball purchasers in the world and banning them and ignoring them is not in Sterns best interest. Anyone that thinks it is has a proverbial screw loose in my opinion.

If I bow out as you suggest then Stern (and from what I'm learning JJP) will keep up their arcane social practices. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. All of the people who like Stern banning people and posting to let it go will just propagate the practice further. It's a free country and and
anyone can feel free to keep disagreeing with me here but it's not helpful to the cause if you really agree with it.

I also find it humorous how many people like to throw in snide comments about me either blatantly or hidden in condescending innuendo. They are not helpful, but hurtful, and truly show who they are hidden behind that keyboard. I do not need to defend my age, my business acumen or intelligence. I have a clear point and that is Stern should stop doing what they are doing.

Exactly, how many does that extrapolate to over a year? The deleted post number must be astronomical. In the hundreds this year as they deleted massive amounts last week alone. Let's look back at our marketing lesson again shall we:

“It's critical to have a social media listening post to quickly respond to each issue that arises," notes Chuck Wall, founder and CEO, Customer CEO Consulting. "You may not be able to solve their specific problem, but don't ignore them. They will give you credit for listening and acknowledging their situation."

Be sure to cover your study guides and read the chapter as we will be having a test next class.

I can understand a permanent ban for the extreme cases of malfeasance. Threats, Racism etc.... no room anywhere for that sort of stuff.

You are right! That is a great testament for the car. That is publicity you can't buy. Where in the world did you get the numbers of deleted post from Ford?

Also I should mentioned above about banned users for extreme malfeasance would also extend to posts.

Now knowing a company would delete posts for extreme malfeasance Ford has sooo many more people to deal with. 187 times as many people in fact. Stern has 15,000 likes to Fords main page of 2,800,000 likes. Out of that many people 25,000 posts (if correct) is less than 1% of their likes in a year. Stern is probably already surpassed 1% of their page likes with post deletes in the last few months. I agree with the post above that car fanatics are probably WAY more diverse than pinheads and there are probably more people who are likely to make threatening, racist, sexist or vile offensive posts than we have. At least I'd like to think so although I know we have them too. (Like the people who made the YouTube videos I used to enjoy before they got bad)

Also, thanks for bringing Ford up as an example. They do exactly what they are supposed to do. They respond to Facebook fans and have open dialogues with them making them feel appreciated and building brand loyalty.

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OMG, how did I miss this comment? I guess it's because I'm a pinhead and not as smart as a car driver. Wait, I do have a state issued license so I am smart.

Doesn't matter what the comments are and who made up a rule that complaints and suggestions are the only factor to get responses? Find one from Stern on their page interacting with a fan/owner. The point is Ford interacts with their facebook users making them feel good and building brand loyalty.

I never said I would call or email them about this issue specifically. If you are trying to back me into a corner asking it go ahead. Vid insisted on a phone call or email approach. I've stated earlier they have never responded to any email from me or others I've spoken to. You can feel free to try your hand at it but I won't bang my head on that wall again. Also, according to Vid you can call Gary directly and enjoy his frankness.

I'm not saying facebook is a way of getting parts and service. I wouldn't try to get parts and service from a social media site. And I highly doubt Ford is paying high school kids to say "wow" and "great" or whatever. Stern obviously has someone reading every post so they can delete them. Not much harder to type a few things to their fans as well.

I think you are just plain "special" and don't have to be lit to make post like that. As much as I might be dissagreeing with some people here they are here talking about it. Not posting a snide comment and running away. Andy BTW, it isn't their web page it is their social media facebook page.

What is sad is that there could be. A little interaction could make it much better. As it stands it is just a glorified web page with stuff they don't want to put on their webpage directly.

If that is all they do is post day in and day out and start each thing with awesome it wouldn't take much skill. You do realize that is just from one section of one thread on their page right? I'm sure I can go find some other more meaningful interactions if you really make me do it. But the intereactions, however worded, prove my point anyway. Ford is responding and Stern isn't

Well I couldn't help but go look to see and the first Ford Facebook page I went to was their Mustang page. It has 8,036,000 likes. WOW! Add that to the 2,800,000 from the main page and the numbers are getting astronomical. If you add just those two pages together the 25,000 deleted posts are just .0023% of their likes. Look what their high school students can post:

FordMustandFB.jpg

I didn't need to scroll long amounts of posts to find it. Their high school students are posting meaningful messages to their followers on the first post I saw! They didn't even delete the post from the person saying they didnt' like the shirts. Stern would have that down in seconds. Here is what Ford did instead:

FordMustandFB1.jpg

I appologize for the condescending tone of this post in advance. I'm just so tired of the people trying so hard to prove I'm wrong and that Stern should have free reign to delete, not respond and ban at will on a social media site they chose to participate in. Of course they have the right to do it but is still is bad business!

EDIT: I took out some of the condescending post at the begining. I don't like revisionist history but I thought it was rather arrogant and insulting so I removed it. Sorry!

That sounds good but if that were true you and the others would not have been trying to point out things that made my theory incorrect. Using different techniques of condescension or blatantly implying that I'm stupid and wrong. I fell prey to being condescending in my last post but honestly had one too many to drink last night when I made it. I've tried to keep my posts above board as much as possible.

For you to say "It's just Facebook" is a statement from someone who doesn't understand the importance of social media today. Business, and the world we conduct it in, is changing. It's not just Facebook, but a myriad of similar sites, and Stern will use these same practices on any of them if they aren't already. (I have no idea if they are utilizing the other social sites as of this post) The practices are giving their customers negative experiences and I am obviously one of them. How can a business think it is a good idea to give negative experiences to their customers on a daily basis? The big picture is that pinball doesn't have much room for it. How many customers can you piss off before your sales figures hurt. Ford obviously values the posts from their customers and responds in kind just as I showed above. Can Ford make that lady like the shirts? No. But they responded and asked if she had seen the rest of the collection. It doesn't fix the lady's problem of not liking the shirts but she knows she's been heard. Stern doens't need 25 full time employees to maintain a page with just 15,000 likes. They already pay someone to monitor it or else how could they delete every posts and ban users. In less time than it takes to anaylize every post on the worthiness of staying or not they could have just typed a response to those people.

My ban has been lifted. The crusade wasn't about my ban being lifted though. Stern really needs to get on the bandwagon of how to operate in today's world.

Kids are always looking for a new place that their parents won't be able to monitor their activities. As I said before, most companies are moving to those sites and apps as well. Stern might have, I don't know. If they haven't they should and they should change their practices while doing so. It isnt' just a facebook thing dude. It is the entire social media thing. Facebook just happens to be the medium we were discussing the problem with and the one Stern is doing the wrong thing with. Your oppinion of why anyone would use it isn't relevant. Obviously 15,000 people want to interact with them on it.

C'mon man, the point was how rapidly things are changing and they aren't even close now to the way business has been conducted in the past 300 years. The past 10 years has been a renaissance of how business works.

Not even remotely similar.

Yes I've checked to see if and when I would be reinstated. We do a lot with our local pinball group (and all the other nearby groups around our area) on facebook keeping up with each other and all the local tournaments and games for sale. Tons of great information gets dissemenated to all us "kids" on facebook.

Well wow. There is just so much wrong here where would you start? Was the plan to confuse people?

I'm quite sure Ford values each customer and understands how each interaction with someone is as important as is the one for the sale of the car. Your company may toy with customers and pander to them and talk about them being idiots but Ford doesn't. It is a professionaly run corporation.

As for the facebook comment, you obviously want to keep proving your lack of understanding of social media and all of its uses both personal and professional. I am far from a facebook fan and really only use it to keep up with this hobby I love and a few friends and family. The point is while you might not like it and use it, that doesn't mean the rest of the world does not like it and use it. It is there and being used and Stern is utilizing it in a poor fashion. Once again I want to see Stern utilize it in a fashion that promotes customer loyalty not to turn them away. (This goes for any social media not just facebook)