Are Tech Company Social Website Pages Useful?

RF Cafe University "Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

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There has been a headlong rush by companies to set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social websites and services. The thumbnail to the left shows 100⁺ such entities managed by the AddThis website (for the Engineer website). I have visited the Facebook pages of quite a few high-tech companies that offer circuit components, equipment racks, software, design services, books, etc. All of these companies also have very nice and useful traditional websites. From what I see, Facebook in particular seems to be a colossal waste of time and effort since most of what appears there is self-promotion, with almost no interaction by anyone else. I won't cite specific companies' Facebook pages, but pick five or six for yourself and see if my claim is valid. There are a handful of exceptions, as always, but in general it is true. When there is any activity at all, it is usually when a contest or a special pricing deal is being offered when a visitor clicks the "Like" button for them. When you do click the "Like" button, that company's postings then begin to show up on your Facebook page, so you either need to hide everything they post or "Unlike" them. I set up a Facebook page for RF Cafe mainly to prevent anyone else from usurping and exploiting the name. ...OK, also because I felt obligated to participate in the fad. There is almost no activity on the page, but at least I'm not alone.

Again, without mentioning names, I just now visited Facebook pages for a couple very prominent companies in the RF and microwave realm. Without exception, I did not see a single post by an outside participant over the last couple days. There were a few "Likes," but really, how meaningful are they? How frequently does a "Like" translate into a "Buy?" It would be interesting to hear from people at companies reporting whether they have been able to positively attribute an improvement in business due to participation in the social media. My guess, based on admittedly anecdotal evidence, is that the resources put into maintaining a Facebook page would be put to better use in improving their WWW websites.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been posting items on LinkedIn every week or two, but very few comments have been received. LinkedIn will also automatically Tweet the first 140 characters. I get practically nothing back from Twitter, either. Maybe it is just me after all!?!