I used to have an excuse for this because people paid me money to do it, but now I'm just there because my friends don't really like me enough to see me face to face.
I follow a lot of brands on Facebook, again because people used to pay me to, and I have noticed over time that a lot of them are rubbish. They're not rubbish because they don't post often enough or because they don't respond quickly enough to complaints (if they don't people get annoyed and use exclamation marks) and they're not rubbish because their spelling or grammar isn't up to scratch, apart from in Carling's case. Carling are rubbish for every reason possible.
But a lot of them (a LOT) are rubbish because they think their fans are small, uneducated children who will only respond if they are shouted at. Capital letters have a purpose and, when used in small doses, can add emphasis to a point. For example when I just used them to type the word 'lot' they made it stand out, they made it look a bit more important. Using capitals for that is fine. However the following words, when used in social media marketing campaigns, should never, ever be typed in big letters.
Comment.
Like.
Share.
Tweet.
Retweet.
Those words are all the things that anyone running a social media platform want to happen. They make their figures look great and they make their clients think the plan is working. They are good things. But everyone using Facebook and, for the last two, Twitter, already knows what those things are. They aren't idiots. They know that by liking a branded Facebook page or by following brands on Twitter they are being advertised to and they know that those brands want them to engage, want them to interact. They know the same thing is happening every time they watch TV or go into a shop. They'll like the adverts (literally in Facebook's case) if they're creative, different and funny. They won't like them simply because you are telling them to.
Here's an example. The other day a brand I chose to like asked me a question. They wanted to know if I would be visiting them over the weekend and asked me to TWEET them my reply. Now let's face it, it wasn't the most imaginative bit of Twitter activity anyway, but the chances of me answering their question were greatly reduced when they shouted at me. I don't like being shouted at by anyone, let alone people wanting me to give them my money. If I was actually at their venue and went into their gift store, would I buy anything if the cashier said, 'Hello sir, BUY SOME STUFF. SPEND YOUR MONEY. FEED THE CORPORATION.' No, I wouldn't.
So what makes them think I will react any differently if they act the same way on their social media sites? It's lazy, it's predictable, it's boring. My next pet peeve would be when they put those very same words in quotation marks, but it would effectively be the same blog post only with the cashier doing quotation marks with his fingers in the air rather than shouting.
Which still wouldn't be as bad as Carling.