Huge Facebook-only sale!

Well, how about we focus on Waltke and O'Connor's Intro to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, since it disappeared from March Madness?

http://www.logos.com/product/4227/an-introduction-to-biblical-hebrew-syntax

Or something else that won't ever go on sale AND costs more, like the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary on the OT?

http://www.logos.com/product/5469/zondervan-illustrated-bible-backgrounds-commentary-new-testament

http://www.logos.com/product/5185/the-new-international-commentary-on-the-old-and-new-testament

I would love to see the New International Commentary OT/NT be discounted!!! Going back through the forums, I saw that this got marked down during the 12 days of Christmas sale last year, but I had just become aware of Logos and purchased a base package at that time, so I totally missed out on that sale. Being a student, $1,599 is a pretty hefty price, though I realize these are some pretty great commentaries.

Oops! Meant OT, linked to NT!

http://www.logos.com/product/5606/zondervan-illustrated-bible-backgrounds-commentary-old-testament

I "liked" the Zondervan OT set for you guys, we'll see what happens!  My fb page is now full of logos product "likes", which my friends probably think is ridiculous lol, but hopefully it will pan out for some pretty sweet deals for us all.  Thanks for the "like" help with the NICOT/NICNT! [Y]

Ben said:

Well, how about we focus on Waltke and O'Connor's Intro to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, since it disappeared from March Madness?

http://www.logos.com/product/4227/an-introduction-to-biblical-hebrew-syntax

Done!!!!!

I decided to call them this morning to see if I could get clarification on how this sale works exactly based on my question in the comment above.  The rep said that he had actually not even heard about this "like-a-thon" and that he was unable to even get onto facebook to check it out because their office had recently denied access to facebook from their computers, as an effort to prevent them from being on it while they were working...lol...we had a little chuckle together and then he suggested that I just email the marketing team.  I figure the "like-a-thon" will be over in a few days anyway...I told the rep that even the most popular resources on logos.com only had about 100 "likes" so far...so if it is based simply on individual titles reaching 1,000 "likes", there won't be any near that amount come April 2nd.  We'll see what happens. Keep up your efforts in "like"ing various products, hopefully it will pay off for us all [:)]

nicky crane said:

The facebook sale looks to me like a mere advertising gimmick.  I';m NOT going to clutter my page with lots of advertising for \Logos. Sorry.

Yes it is an advertising gimmick; what else? And C.S. Lewis would say there's nothing shameful about the adjective "mere."

I generally don't like advertising at all, let alone advertising methods
that use friends. But I do like Logos, so I caved in a bit on my
principles. However, I discovered I could remove the "Like" posts from my wall after I'd "Like"d the products mentioned above in this thread (to help other people; I already own them all). Hopefully they haven't ended up in several of my friends' news feeds before I removed them. I really don't know how all of that works.

Rosie Perera said:

I generally don't like advertising at all, let alone advertising methods
that use friends.

This is how Logos does most of their advertising.  They are always asking to post on our blogs, tweet, ... about their specials.   While I like Logos, I NEVER do this because I feel like I am being used by Logos.

Greg Masone said:

If something goes on sale because of this, will you refrain from buying it? To be consistent and all.

tom collinge said:

I am not a tool to be used by any company, and I will not make an exception for Logos.

It's not about being a tool, it's about voluntary participation. If you don't want to participate, that's fine, but that's no reason for disparaging a company that makes unique use of social media to get the message out about their products. I've not participated in this particular promotion, and generally abstain from Facebook promotions, but I still see this as Logos using creative means to spread the word through their customers.

tom collinge said:

I personally do not see the like button (see screen print):

 

Hi, Tom! What browser are you using? The Like button should appear right between the Windows and Facebook icons.

Ryan

Stephen, I've got to admire your tenacity. You do indeed believe in what you're doing. I personally don't know what the answer is, but you certainly are an asset to Logos (and any other company you may work for in your future).

Stephen Smith said:

Rosie Perera said:

nicky crane said:

The facebook sale looks to me like a mere advertising gimmick.

I generally don't like advertising at all

I was a bit startled when I saw these comments [...] we don't really talk about our social media activities in these terms ("getting people to advertise for us").

I should have emphasized the "generally" and the "do" in my subsequent sentence ("But I do like Logos..."). I was thinking of things like Groupon not Logos.

Stephen Smith said:

Question: when you tell someone that you found a recipe, restaurant, article of clothing, zoo, software, computer, camera, purse, car, etc. that you really like, do you think of yourself as "advertising"? Probably not. So when you "LIKE" or "tweet" something, you may simply be doing this with some amplification.

 

I don't often find myself gushing about a new product I've found that I really like, except to specific friends who ask (e.g., "do you know of any good Chinese restaurants around here?") or ones whom I know share a particular interest in that type of product (e.g., I'll tell my photography enthusiast friend about a new lens I got for my camera). The broadcast of that info to a bunch of people most of whom are not likely to be at all interested just isn't my thing. I confess that I haven't taken the time to organize my FB friends into groupings of Christians, photography friends, college friends, workmates, etc., so as to direct my posts to only the groups of them who might be interested in thus-and-such. And my understanding of "Like" is you can't control who it goes to anyway.

Stephen Smith said:

We advertise all the time and in everything: Brand names on your shirts or shoes; car make/model emblems plus tags like "off-road package" or 4x4 or Heavy Duty; branded bags to carry your take-out food. Some of these may have not struck you as advertising (transparently, the car "tags" have appealed to me because I perceived them as bragging, not advertising). And you may already avoid some of these.

I don't wear branded clothing if I can help it (I can't help but sport a New Balance logo on my sneakers). I use unmarked cloth bags to shop at the grocery store, and most of the places I ever go for take-out (which is very infrequent) use plain white plastic bags or plain brown paper bags. I can't recall ever seeing branded take-out bags, in fact.

Stephen Smith said:

And if you like the product and company and want others benefit from it, is that really just mercenary advertising?

As I pointed out with my "But I do like Logos" sentence, I view my sharing of how much I like Logos as in a different category from general advertising. And that's why I did "Like" these Logos products. It was my stupidity that made me think I could remove the posts from my feed and have it still give a benefit to Logos. Duh! Sorry about that. I did not mean to do anything to harm Logos, and never would do so intentionally.

Stephen Smith said:

Further, the absolute most it would put on their wall would be a line that says, "Rosie Perera like ____ from Logos.com and 3 other links." Hardly using a friend, if you ask me.

No, I wouldn't call this using a friend. Only potentially bothering friends with what they might perceive to be spam. They might hide me in their friend feed if they don't like the kinds of things I post. A large number of my friends on FB are not Christians and would have no interest whatsoever in Bible software or commentary sets. I can get away with posting links to thought-provoking articles from a faith perspective, but talking up specifically Christian products is a bit harder for me to justify in a pluralist medium.

I will say I do talk up Logos in person with people from my church, fellow seminary alums, and local area ministers. I'm just old school. I prefer the personal touch to the more impersonal strategies of social networking, though I know the latter do have their place and can be very effective in this interconnected age.

NewbieMick said:

Actually, I'm not on facebook and up till now had no inclination to do so. I'm giving away enough of my privacy (and hang around online) in forums.

I feel the same way, but finally caved in. Of course, I opened a new Hotmail account just for Facebook, I didn't make any friends, and I switched every setting I could find to make things visible just for me and no one else. And I may have happened to slip a bit on the keyboard when I typed in my name and birthday. So I don't believe I gave away much, except my IP address (and there are ways around that as well if you want).

tom collinge said:

There is one huge difference between what Logos is asking us to do and me telling a friend that I found this new place to have dinner.  This one huge difference is Logos is initiating the conversation.  Logos is trying to convince me to tell my friends that I like this item

tom collinge said:

I NEVER do this because I feel like I am being used by Logos.

tom collinge said:

I am not a tool to be used by any company, and I will not make an exception for Logos.

Chris Roberts said:

Because of the clutter issue, I've not done any likes - not wanting to flood facebook friends (and church members!) with a lot of product pages. I love Logos, I love the resources, but I love my friends more and don't want them ditching me in the flood.

Tom, as one who finds much of Logos' business methods less than ethical, and as one who myself refuses to take part in some types of sales because of this, I admire your principles. In this particular case, however, I don't agree with you. I see nothing inherently dishonest in this sale, nothing that forces me to violate my principles in order to take part. 

Admittedly, it takes a ridiculous amount of time if you wish to 'like' more than a few things -- time that could probably be better spent -- but at least it's voluntary and I have a chance to get something out of it (and help others get something out of it) -- which is an awful lot more than can be said about the equally ridiculous amount of time I have to spend on reporting typos and bugs. Forcing paying customers to act as unpaid alpha/beta testers and proof-readers, that is immoral; offering us a chance to earn a little by advertising for them is not in my opinion.

As for the flooding and being used, well, if they use you, you can use them, right? What's to stop the two of you and everyone else from opening a second Facebook account just for this, as outlined above? Then your friends won't see a thing.

What would be immoral, though, in my opinion, would be to refuse to take part in the 'liking', and yet take advantage of the sale prices. If you won't help to bring the prices down for others, you shouldn't then jump in to benefit from the work of those others. Just an opinion. What you actually do is between you and God, and I couldn't care less. (And yes, Tom, I saw your answer.)

Todd Phillips said:

I disagree with this

Feel free to do so. [:)] However, I wasn't talking about people who simply missed the first part of the sale, or something like that. I was talking about people who deliberately refuse to 'like' because they find the idea behind this sale unethical, but who then nevertheless intend to take advantage of it.

Todd Phillips said:

Sale prices exist to get people to make purchases.  Logos would love it if people who aren't interacting with them regularly would buy more stuff.

You'd think so, but not necessarily. If Logos thought like that this wouldn't be a Facebook only sale, there wouldn't be Twitter only offers, we wouldn't be forbidden to post campaign codes in the forums, and no one would get a better price by calling a sales rep. 

David Paul said:

The other problem, as far as this sale goes, is that I don't "like" the direction they've gone with L4. Even if they implemented all of my desired changes and upgrades, I'm not sure it would fully resolve my dissatisfaction with the program. My attitude would improve, I suppose, but I don't think L4 is capable of winning me over no matter how much they tweak it. I used to be an unabashed cheerleader for Logos, but ever since L4 came out and effectively relegated L3 to the dustbin, I've pretty much resented L4. I use it, and it does some nifty things, but it is still the severely wanting program that ended further improvement of L3.

I'm waiting for L5. I hope it has what I'm looking for. L4 ain't it. I'd love to have a reason for my attitude to change, especially since Logos is an integral part of my life. If L5 hits it out of the park, then it may be the first thing that I choose to "like" on Facebook.

Just curious David, what would be your list of issues with L4 that are available/done better in L3? Thanks...

Here's a question.

I see that there's a fair amount of likes on the EEC. Is there even a chance they'll discount it?