An Utah based housing complex has demanded that the residents in their apartments give their Facebook page a thumbs up, and as you can imagine, it has a received an overwhelming thumbs down response.
Can we be Facebook friends?
Even those living under a rock know the importance of social media. Positive reviews bring more customers and maintaining a healthy presence on line is not just important, but essential in today’s world. However, there are number of times this can lead to what the YOLO generation like to call a ‘fail’.
City Park Apartments, a Utah housing complex posted notes on the residents doors, only this note wasn’t about noise levels or making sure the trash is thrown into the right places. No, the occupants were instead faced with a legal looking and sounding request to ‘like’ the City Park Apartments Facebook page or face being in violation of their tenancy agreement. If ever you wanted an example of the ‘please be my friend’ desperation, this is your example. When you need lawyers to make friends you know you are barking up the wrong tree.
Reaction – Dislike
There is nothing people like less than being told what to ‘like’ on their (private) Facebook profiles, and the action generated a considerable backlash. The Facebook page was inundated with abuse, its Yelp page received so many negative comments that the page was taken down and its fair to say that its rating levels (which already weren’t great) plummeted on ApartmentRatings.
In a speedy backtrack that even the French would be proud of, it seems that is was all a silly misunderstanding. Kirk A. Cullimore LLC, a local law firm representing City Park Apartments sought to clarify their client’s position, stating “at no time was a resident in jeopardy of eviction or action from City Park for failure to sign the addendum.” It seems their client was just a little hasty, perhaps getting carried, and in what I like to call understated honesty they continued by saying that note on the door was “not carefully reviewed”.
For all its ills, one great aspect of social media is the way that the public can unite to give the metaphorical finger to those companies that seem like they are trying to hard, or just being plain annoying. If only Facebook gave us the option for a ‘dislike‘ button.
