Be my friend--I'll pay you

Entertainment etailer TheHut.com apparently believes in the power of social networking and is putting its money where its mouth is. On its Twitter feed it posted: "Join us on facebook, tell you're [sic] friends. Once we reach 500 fans we'll give you all a discount voucher." 

As a kid we were told you can't buy popularity and shouldn't bribe people to be your friends. TheHut doesn't appear to abide by that old-school thinking. Then again, bribing people to join your Facebook page isn't much different to offering people a prize to sign up for your enewsletters. I wonder what the ROI on this promotion will be and if other marketers will follow suit.

By the way, as of Monday morning TheHut had only 80 Facebook friends, so if you want that voucher, there's still time!--SC