Jadin Promotions, the Connecticut-based social media marketing company hired by Friendly Discount Beverage, a beer and wine store on Forest Avenue, denies any wrongdoing related to the Facebook smear campaign that targeted Friendly’s competitors in Portland.
The social media marketing company, operated by Jim Adinolfi, was linked to a campaign to flood Facebook pages of other local beer and wine retailers – including Bier Cellar and Old Port Wine Merchant – with dozens of one-star reviews. Sam Patel, manager of Friendly Discount Beverage, which opened in early 2013, said Adinolfi had launched the campaign without Patel’s consent. A Facebook representative said Tuesday that it would investigate the one-star reviews, which those targeted have said are fraudulent.
“I can’t comment on all of the products or services we’ve offered Sam, but I can tell you we would never do anything to go against Facebook’s rules,” Adinolfi said Thursday.
In response to questions about the Facebook smear campaign, Adinolfi said he had to be careful with his words because he was consulting an attorney.
He wouldn’t admit or deny responsibility for the campaign, but said, “we wouldn’t provide any work without the actual business owner or manager being fully aware of what we were doing.”
When pressed on whether Jadin Promotions orchestrated the social media smear campaign, Adinolfi said: “We don’t want to say anything that might be misleading or confusing, so I want to be very specific and let you know that I’m not saying I left the reviews.”
Patel said he had hired Adinolfi and Jadin Promotions earlier this year to build a website and handle its social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram. Patel said that within the past few weeks Adinolfi had gone rogue, booted Patel from being able to administer his store’s Facebook page and single-handedly launched the smear campaign against his competitors.
“It’s a nightmare,” Patel said Tuesday afternoon. “This is not how I conduct business. I’m not in the business to slander others. … I’ll do everything in my power to help everyone fix this.”
Adinolfi denied booting Patel from the Facebook page. Adinolfi said Patel blocked him from Patel’s personal Facebook profile, which made it impossible for Adinolfi to add Patel as an administrator. When asked if there was a falling out between himself and Patel, Adinolfi hesitated before saying: “Yeah, I would say that there’s definitely an issue with the client.”
Jadin Promotions is based in Waterbury, Connecticut, but also has an office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Adinolfi said. He said he’s a Maine resident.
Adinolfi said he manages more than 100 Facebook pages for clients, but wouldn’t identify them. He said he helps clients gain Facebook “likes” organically, and is very careful to not violate the social media powerhouse’s terms of service. Because of how much his business relies on Facebook, he said, it wouldn’t make sense for him to risk getting his company on the wrong side of Facebook’s security team.
“We follow the Facebook rules pretty much to a T,” he said. “The last thing we ever want to do is upset Facebook.”
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