State Department spent $630,000 on Facebook likes

A newly released report from the U.S. State Department reveals that the government agency spent approximately $630,000 on acquiring Facebook likes.

Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the State Department, addressed the concerns in a press conference on Wednesday morning. She explained the State Department is now spending far less on advertising. Whereas the department was spending $315,000 a year, it is now spending $36,000 a year, according to Paski.

"Online advertising has significantly decreased," Paski said. "It’s now at $2,500 a month, and that still allows us to reach out and communicate with a wide range of individuals living overseas."

The 57-page report, prepared by the State Department's inspector general, says the agency's spending resulted in an increase in the bureau's likes on the popular social network, going from around 100,000 to over 2 million within two years.

"Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as 'buying fans' who may have once clicked on an ad or 'liked' a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further," the inspector general reported.

Indeed, while the number of likes increased dramatically, the engagement did not. According to the report, just over 2 percent of the fans actively liked, shared or commented on an item within the previous week.

From the State Department report:

So, basically, the State Department had a lot more fans for its series of sites, but those fans weren't exactly acting like fans. The report also mentioned that the effort to get more likes didn't connect with the "bureau's target audience, which is largely older and more influential than the people liking its pages," according to the Washington Examiner.

But, the inspector general wrote, engagement might not be the answer.

Things got worse once Facebook changed the way it handles users' news feeds, according to the report.