As I was browsing through my Facebook newsfeed this morning, something that Social Media Speaker and Trainer Mari Smith posted caught my eye. It was about the Crock Pot Girls Facebook page which has received over 1,000,000 likes in just 2 weeks!
Mari posted, “How do you get over 1,000,000 fans in two weeks?! That’s what a lot of folks are wondering. A new phenomenon Crock Pot Girls, sprung up from nowhere in mid-August and now has 1.1M likes. There is much speculation on the ‘net as to how these fans came about. Is it a bot? Is an affiliate marketer behind the page? Is it a corporate campaign, created by Crock-Pot®? Who knows…”
She also listed some blogs and sites that are asking the same question and covering the story:
- Crock Pot Girls a CROCK???
- My 2 Cents on Crock Pot Girls for What It’s Worth
- ‘Crock Pot Girls’ Facebook Page Nears 1M Likes In 2 Weeks, Who Are They?
- The Warrior Forum Post
- The Crock Pot Girls Popularity
It seems everyone is asking “What’s going on?”. Some are saying it’s fake and could possibly be a Facebook BOT, while others are saying they believe it’s completely legitimate.
Here’s one view of the whole situation:
Still curious but at work, I asked a friend to look up the Whois for crockpotgirls.com (not linking because their server can’t handle the traffic anyway). The site was registered on August 26, 2011 to Chase Shelby. Based on a quick search and cross reference, I learned he also owns the domains ChaseMarketingProfits.com and StephenvilleIternetMarketing.com and on related message boards he identifies himself as an Internet/affiliate marketer.
Possibly they hired him to create their website and as payment he gets whatever money he can make via affiliate ads?
I definitely plan on following this story to see if anyone from Crock Pot Girls responds. And yes, I am one of the million+ that “Liked” their page, but not until just a few minutes ago when I read about the story. They do have a website – www.crockpotgirls.com – which is very basic.
What do you think? Does this whole situation seem a little fishy to you or is the world just crazy for crockpot recipes?
I liked their page about a week ago, as a result of my FB connections posting about the craziness. Couldn’t believe the level of activity on their page! Literally, every second
I got suspicious after I saw the lack of content on their actual site. I am following the story as well.
They actually seem legit to me after doing more research. They have their own YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/thecrockpotgirls) as well as tons of recipes on their website. As for how they got a million + fans on FB, I have no idea! But I would love to find out what their strategy was.
Hey Julie – thanks for the shoutout and bringing more attention to this anomaly of a fan page!! 🙂 I’m still checking in to it. Lots of folks would love to crack that code. LOL! 🙂
You’re welcome Mari! And yes, cracking that code would be awesome. 🙂
It does seem like quite the phenomenon that their page has become so
viral, but don’t be fooled – there is someone behind the scenes forcing
it to become that way. I believe the the intentions of the 3 girls was
true, but they have someone else helping them that has done some “fishy”
things in order to get them the response they have.
I think it’s legit. People love their Crock Pots and this happened to spread like wildfire. I’m noticing the “Likes” of my friends in my feed more often now. With the economy bad people are looking for ways to save money. Crock Pot cooking is one of those ways. I sent the link to the website to my mom. Food sells! 🙂
I saw this funny crock pot ecard that us crock pot girls would like…
It was a scam. The girls used Fiverr Gigs to get the fans, it did end up going viral but was a 100% scam!