MomCrunch
Crock Pot Girls — Viral Hit or Black Hat “Crock”
Within hours, the CrockPotGirls Facebook page, which is only two weeks old, will hit 1 million fans — but how did this wonder-page happen? Is it a social media miracle or a social media scam? In their first live interview, the Texan moms behind the site share their story.
In a social media arms race, where everyone from Fortune 500 Companies to independent bloggers are doing everything they can to build their “presence” on Facebook, a little Facebook-page-that-could amassing nearly 1 million fans in two weeks is going to cause a bit of a stir. Or maybe a hurricane.
While social media experts and bloggers try to figure out how the Crock Pot Girls are doing it, the three Texas girls behind the FB page say, “We just giggle.”
The Texas moms marvel that their site could surpass Facebook fan pages like Rachel Ray and Good Morning America in mere days. In their first interview, Allyson, Jenna, and Nicole attribute the success to their story — “three moms who accidentally did it.”
Indeed it does seem a bit like winning the lottery. To hear these three women giggle their way through an interview about how they hit the Facebook big time, they surely don’t sound like they had the black hat plans that some are supposing.
In fact, when questioned about the success of their Facebook fan page, the girls say:
“That wasn’t our intention. We wanted to share with moms. Put your recipes so we can know what each other is cooking this week. No idea that other people would find any interest in what we were cooking in our crock pots.”
And even Chase Shelby, one of the girl’s brother-in-law, who blogger udandi reports registered the domain www.crockpotgirls.com August 26, 2011, hardly appears to be the mastermind behind the scene.
As udandi discovered, Chase Shelby owns two other domains, ChaseMarketingProfits.com and StephenvilleInternetMarketing.com. He is inexperienced at best, describing himself on his site as “a normal guy who is turning his career focus to internet marketing.”
According to the Crock Pot Girls, they brought Chase in when their Facebook fan page got out of control.
“My brother-in-law does technology type stuff and I called him and said, ‘Chase we are getting bombarded on our FB can you please start us a web site?’ And he said, ‘Yeah I’ll start it up real quick.’ And he got one started and he is like, ‘I am gonna have to take some vacation days or something…’ He is working his normal job and coming home and working Crock Pot Girls from 6 o-clock to 2 in the morning.”
Yes, there are people out there trying to game the system. There are people buying Facebook fans and launching complex Facebook page growth plans.
But did the Crock Pot Girls, or someone behind them, devise an attack plan – black or white hat – to take over the world of crock pots?
To listen to these three innocent Texas moms, it sure doesn’t appear so. On the contrary, they seem even more surprised than everyone else.
And, if someone were buying fans and placing targeted ads, one would imagine they would have a site and a game plan ready to go if it took off. The Crock Pot Girls were clearly unprepared for such success.
We are barely two weeks into the CrockPotGirls Facebook story. No one could have predicted that one innocuous Facebook page could have such incredible and sudden success, and I don’t think any of us can predict exactly what will become of it, and the three Texan moms and the brother-in-law, Chase Shelby, behind it.
But it will certainly be something to watch!
Click here to listen to the entire interview from Brownwood KXYL.
YOUR TURN:
What do you think is the true story behind the Crock Pot Girls? Is it a spontaneous, viral hit, or is there a targeted campaign behind it?
UPDATE – Thanks to Shannon for leaving a link on our 5m4m FB page to a post explaining how a Facebook Bot may have been used on the Crock Pot Girls page. Interesting for sure!
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16 Comments
Amanda commented on Sep 01 11 at 9:13 amI think its a sham. Things dont go viral unless there is a reason… and quite frankly, there are dozens of sites that offer recipes, what makes theirs special??? I believe these “giggling” gals are not being truthful.
nicole commented on Sep 01 11 at 9:29 amI think it is just a well-timed success story. Consider that more and more adults/parents use FB. Many moms that have busy lives, juggling work and family and extracurricular activities for everyone. Of course they are on the hunt for things to make life easier. I saw friends liking the page and finally checked it out myself. If this were some kind of corporate scam I would expect a more attractive FB page and website. Sometimes people just have the right idea at the right time.
Michele McGraw commented on Sep 01 11 at 11:28 amIt seems that some who supposedly have “liked” the crock pot girls facebook page say in fact they did NOT and have no idea how they got liked…so I’m not sure it’s legit.
Sarah Kimmel {Tech4Moms} commented on Sep 01 11 at 11:30 amI think there is definitely some black hat stuff going on. My facebook stream said that several of my friends had “liked” their page, and I asked them why, and they had no idea what I was talking about. They had never even visited the page! I have heard several reports of the same thing.
No Ordinary Momma commented on Sep 01 11 at 2:15 pmI’m guessing scam. I find it hard to believe that people are dying to share crock pot recipes every 5 seconds…their wall is so active that it just seems suspect. Last night I scrolled through several pages on their wall and noticed some of the exact same posts replicating by the same profile users. Also, not a single negative comment…all glowing reviews and comments. Seems fishy.
Cat Davis commented on Sep 01 11 at 2:49 pmWhile I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, something just doesn’t seem right here. Add in the fact they’re latching onto the success of a trademarked name, I have a feeling this success won’t last long.
Erin commented on Sep 01 11 at 4:37 pmI know for a fact that this is no sham. I personally know one of the girls and she suggested I go “Like” the page on Facebook because a couple of days prior to their page starting, I was asking for recipes from any of my Facebook friends {preferably in the Crock Pot or a casserole dish} to simplify my days. The day I “Liked” there were only 42 girls, I believe, and it blew up overnight {literally}! They had no intentions of blowing up this big {obviously}, they just got lucky {it happens}.
Susan (5 Minutes for Mom) commented on Sep 01 11 at 5:58 pmThis will be interesting to watch… I like to believe the best, so I think these women haven’t done anything wrong. If anything black hat has been done, I don’t think they are part of it.
Fast viral sharing is often totally natural. Congrats to them if it was.
MainlineMom commented on Sep 01 11 at 6:22 pmI did a quick survey of my 15 friends who “Liked” their page and all were legit. I can see the appeal for sure. I certainly noticed quite a few of my friends Likeing it over the past few days and it had me curious, though not enough to Like it myself. Good post.
Brenda S. commented on Sep 01 11 at 7:56 pmThese sites are popular, my colleague runs “A Busy Mom’s Crock Pot Cooking Adventures” on facebook with 3500 followers, her recipes are great, something for everyone. Who doesn’t want a quick, tasty recipe?
Steve commented on Sep 01 11 at 9:14 pmIt’s a total “crock”. Facebook bots creating accounts, friending friends lists. Black, black hat!
Amy commented on Sep 01 11 at 10:29 pmI love my crock pot and I read this article. LIKE!
Andi / udandi commented on Sep 01 11 at 10:52 pmI’m a reference librarian. I gather, organize and share information. When something piques my interests, I ask questions and seek answers.
Now, I’m interested to see what brands hitch a ride starting with Southern Living posting a slow cooker recipe to their FB wall…
TMG Daily commented on Sep 02 11 at 3:33 pmWe have an exclusive story which exposes the Crock Pot Girls using seedy tactics to keep the competition away. Shameful! Please spread the word and help the little guy.
betsy commented on Sep 02 11 at 6:23 pm“I’m guessing scam. I find it hard to believe that people are dying to share crock pot recipes every 5 seconds…their wall is so active that it just seems suspect. Last night I scrolled through several pages on their wall and noticed some of the exact same posts replicating by the same profile users. Also, not a single negative comment…all glowing reviews and comments. Seems fishy”
that’s because negative reviews last all of about 20 minutes on the page before they’re deleted. Amazing that these mom’s of toddlers can keep up with it fast enough to delete the negative comments.
Clarissa Nassar commented on Sep 07 11 at 2:01 pmshady… if it wasn’t intended to be anything more that just a little thing between a few friends why is it now all of a sudden a website?
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