I don’t like the ‘I like’ changes on Facebook

Clicking on ‘I like this brand’, what does it actually mean? How high or how low is the barrier to push on that button? It’s obvious that brands will get larger groups of people on their ‘I like this brand’ page then instead of their fanpages. Question is: what do you want as a brand? A page with a lot of people who like your brand or a page with less people who love your brand. That is the difference between fanship and liking: Fans love the brand, they don’t just like it.

Having access to a group of people who love your brand was a great invention and a great tool for Conversation Managers. The new Facebook policy brings us back to the old school metrics where reach is more important than value. Facebook of all companies should know that value is the KPI of social media and conversation management (much more than reach).

My personal feeling is that the switch to ‘I like’ is all part of the masterplan in preparing their IPO next year. Larger ‘databases’ are worth more money. I was probably naive to think that Facebook would be the first IPO using new value parameters… As I said in the beginning, a real pitty for both consumers, Facebook and Conversation Managers that this decision was taken.