Yep, it's amazing how forgiving communities can be when you acknowledge. This is still my favourite example... http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/17/rogue-beer-tweet-by-red-cross-employee-leads-to-donations/

Well, at least people are spelling their name right ;)

Hi Damian, small world - I just realised you host with Wallace, and I'm mates with Tabby. Fair point, I'm behind the 8 ball on the takeover of the page ;)

As to whether it's a huge consideration though, if you go back to the purpose (IMO) of social, it's to build your brand likeability around quality conversations with your community, rather than a numbers game. And with a good community, and good system you should be able to show ROI around sales number, brand penetration, likeability etc.

So to me, more than anything they missed the opportunity to invite people to their new space, maximising a conversation around the transition etc. Instead, (rightly or wrongly), people feel like they were duped without their consent. What's the point of a large number of fans, if they don't actually 'like' you? It puts you in front of critical sharks, rather than legion fans.

Great wrap Russell. Spot on. The additional challenge they seem to have made for themselves, is their treatment last night and today in their own social media. In addition to not engaging to manage response, and develop a 'we are listening to our viewers (customers)' reputation, it seems they're censoring FB posts to their page and apparently removing a number. So while initial negative response was about the show, now people are miffed their opinions weren't even listened too, and deleted.

Also, it looks like they've changed and re-skinned their FB page from CloseUp, rather than develop a genuine and authentic audience. I appreciate wanting to maximise an existing audience, but being up front about the transfer and giving people the opportunity to opt in, might have been received better.