To wonder why people post dickish comments on FB adverts

[interstatelovesong]

I have my own business and I do beauty (specifically microblading and semi permanent make up)

I pay out a fair amount out for Facebook and Instagram advertising

However I'm getting sick of the negative comments. If people aren't interested in what I do then that's obviously fine, not everyone will want to have the treatments I do. But I don't get why some people actually go out of their way to post stuff like this and try and drag small businesses down especially in this climate. It's spiteful

It's not just me ...I see it on other business ads and posts as well. Just so unnecessary. I try not to rise to it but it really pisses me off

According to m

Lots of comments on FB advertising are about products that are clearly a rip off/don't work.

In your particular example, I think pointing out that there's no need for any of these treatments is just as valid as your assertion that it's a woman's choice. Of course it is, but your industry lives on making women feel their bodies aren't as good as they should be, so I'm not sure you get to take the moral high ground

YABU and you are very unprofessional. Your responses alone would stop me ever wanting to do business with you.

Yes, that too

If women were confident and secure enough to not feel they need to undergo expensive and painful procedures to look a certain way then your business would not exist. I think it's fair and right that people challenge you and you then have the opportunity to respond as you wish.

I think you could have given him a better response that answers his question. If you educate people rather than trying to cut them down people will think more highly of you and your professionalism.

With the price comment, you could have responded "if you want to DM me with your budget, we can discuss whether I have any suitable treatments available"

I didn’t see his question as being particularly rude, I wonder this about eyebrows myself. Likewise with nail treatments where the resulting nails seem unusable for everyday life. When I go to a beauty salon it’s just for a normal manicure or a tidy up of my eyebrows.

Having said that I do take your point that there are some very rude people on social media

Hahaha I have seen this too 😆 completely embarrassing for them

some people do have strong feelings towards the beauty industry exacerbating a woman’s insecurities so when they see an ad in their feed it’s easy for them to express that, even if the expression is quite snarky. I’d assume you would expect that rather than feel surprised at it and a professional response that highlights the positives of what you do would be more appropriate than a snarky response back.

the lady who commented on the cost could well be insecure herself and really wanting her eyebrows doing. Could have have commented back with a bit of empathy? Maybe ask her to look out for any promotions on your page that you may be running in the near future.

these ads will appear in a lot of peoples feeds so how you respond can make or break opportunities for more custom. If you change your mindset to it and see where they’re coming from you could well earn yourself more customers and avoid losing any that are already checking you out.

Couple of reasons I think.

First, Facebook/Twitter/Google are very "flat" (for want of a better word that I can't think of right now) — ads are presented in almost exactly the same way as all other content, actively encouraging people to interact with them in exactly the same way they'd interact with other content, which in the case of Facebook would mean commenting with their trivial observations in the same way that people hope their friends will comment on their personal posts.

Second, people are fed up with almost every aspect of their lives being commercialised and exploited for advertising purposes. Yes, businesses need to make money, and they can provide these services for free because they're selling our eyeballs to businesses. But it didn't always used to be this intensive, and people remember a time when not every moment was filled with someone trying to sell them something every thirty seconds. 20–25 years ago, if I wanted to chat to random people online as I'm doing now, I could log on to Usenet using a newsreader (or just Outlook Express) and could chat about all kinds of different topics in subject-specific newsgroups with no advertising. If my club wanted to keep people up to date with the latest fixtures and notices, there might be a mailing list or a newsletter or a website or a phone tree, or people would stick to what had been discussed at the previous group. If I wanted to keep up with old friends I might email or phone. If I wanted to chat to people I know locally I might go down the pub. And a lot of these things were a little less convenient than Facebook et al., which is why so many people moved over — meaning that everyone else had to follow in order to stay with the conversation — but that doesn't mean that people don't resent something that can feel like a businessperson sticking their nose into their lives in general and the conversation in particular at regular intervals, saying "Buy my goods and services!" So they show you what they think of that by making a snarky comment.

Third, you're not the audience for these comments. Sometimes people are making these comments for the benefit of people they know — to make them laugh, to connect with them, to show off, whatever.