If you’ve visited a Facebook Page today you may have noticed right away that “Become a Fan” has been replaced with “Like”. This change is aimed at improving engagement with Pages, since according to Facebook, users are more comfortable with the term “Like”.
Apparently, Facebook users are also commitment phobes and “becoming a fan” equates to saying “I DO” in front of your entire online network! I can see their point, but then again, I usually jump in with both feet blindfolded to swim around and explore before coming up for air.
Anyway, at first glance you may think you can no longer send updates to fans….I mean friends….or “people”. But you can, you just have to edit your page. However, I’m guessing there are more changes to come since the term “fans” still remains in some areas on the editing dashboard. But I don’t think it will be long before Facebook eradicates that term completely!
Another interesting change associated with this update is that the interests you share on your Facebook Profile will be linked to similar interest based Pages. So for example, if you list “No Doubt” as one of your favorite bands in the music section of your profile, Facebook will suggest you join the No Doubt Facebook Page. Facebook explains their new focus in detail on it’s own blog here.
One not so noticeable feature you may have missed today is the ability to create a Facebook Ad for a particular status update. Friend and RE rockstar, Dustin Luther, explains the “Promote a Post” feature on his blog!
Now if you’ve been playing around inside Facebook and have a few thoughts, questions or comments….I hope you’ll share them with me here! And be sure to tell me, “How do you LIKE Facebook’s latest update?”
I am encouraging my "my page admirers, formerly known as fans" [ Prince-like terminology] to start referring to themselves as Likers, as in " I am a liker of Joe's Facebook page."
I predict that Liker will be THE tech word of 2010.
LOL! One might even say, "I'm in like with your page!" At any rate, I'm definitely a "Liker" of your page Joe! Thanks for sharing and I think you're WAY ahead of your time!
My time being?… uh, the late middle part of the last century?
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I'm not sure if I agree with this statement. My small world seems to enjoy becoming a "Fan" (they do it quite often). "Like" is too easy, almost too uncommitted. I would prefer 1,000 "Fans" instead of 10,000 "Likes".
The <<>> was supposed to include:
This change is aimed at improving engagement with Pages, since according to Facebook, users are more comfortable with the term “Like”.
Facebook made that assumption not me…I'm just interpreting it! But I agree, it's not a numbers game for me…it's the engagement with people who have similar interests and goals that I care about. And I'd prefer 100 interested folks who may actually want to converse with me…than 1,000 uncommitted folks on stand by!
I'm definitely getting a kick out of this round of updates. So many new and interesting features to play with!
Yes! And I love that you hit on probably the most interesting change. I'm pretty much obsessed with optimizing status updates…not in your rockstar analytical fashion, but in a happy niknik way!
Oh, and what I REALLY get a kick out of is having to update all my Facebook presentations with new screenshots….good times!
LOL, such is the life of the ever-changing SEO/NEO, and with Facebook's popularity rising by the minute, either you adapt and adjust with the times or you get left in the dust. Thanks for the post, Nik.
True that! Social media is helping me cope with my obsessive need to schedule and plan EVERYTHING! And I admit…I'm not a big fan of those that change plans on me…but technology is actually helping me to "go with the flow". Woohoo…thanks for sharing!
This idea of Liking something has gone too far. It's a naff term that means so much it means nothing. I'd like (there's that word again) to see Facebook give page admins the choice. Become a Fan is a perfect choice if you're Brittany Spears, like is a great option on some community pages. They might also give admins the option to use other terms such as Add This Page to my Newsfeed or…the list is endless. Just a few options would be fine.
As for the promoted updates I've had that available for ages. On the flip side I'm still not seeing the Like button on Pages I'm not a fan of.
It would definitely be a PLUS if we could assign our own keyword that fits….fan, rockstar, peep, etc. I don't think the entire set of new features has completely been rolled out yet. I saw many changes this morning, but now it looks like I'm back to the previous layout!
Great post NikNik. Lots of exciting stuff going on with Facebook especially with f8 this week.
My attention right now is on the whole Community page thing. First of all that looks like a huge advertising platform play to me. Now they have millions and millions of content pages (likely SEO friendly) and know who "likes" those.
And as importantly, what happens to the Realtor who spends a ton of time creating a great, engaging topic page like "Things to do in CITY". Can that get turned into a Community page no longer owned by the creator?
Well, I think you're right on. This is clearly a huge ad opportunity, but I wonder if this update could really change the way we interact and make it more meaningful. Pages seem to have gotten out of hand in my opinion. When you're just creating a Page to get the keyword URL, but are missing strategy but invite all your friends anyway. And can one really manage multiple pages and a profile effectively? Perhaps this will force us to be a bit more selective about the connections we create.
Now I haven't gotten to play with these updates as of yet. I saw them briefly this morning and then everything reverted back to the old layout. So I'm in the dark…but I believe you can still create a regular Page for any business, organization, city, etc. But the "community" pages will be an additional choice. And it sounds like they will be more "wikipedia-ish" on varying topics. So as of now, I still see an opportunity for agents to focus on their niche. The community page may become more of a collective resource, while the niche business page may still be where a particular business or locals congregate for more targeted interaction. Guess I'll just have to wait and see how that plays out!
I am not even sure whether Facebook is going allow users to create their own community pages. This might be the reason why Facebook did not allow generic words as vanity URLs. For example, "Pizza".
Just realized that you can in fact create a community page ….
Thanks for being such a thorough commenter Aaron!
Where did you get the skinny? Are you able to use that feature yet? Fill me in..
Yes, I can use the community page feature.
Community pages has been around for a while. Mashable did a post on it on Apr 01, 2010
Here's the link, the post also tells you how to create a community page.
http://mashable.com/2010/04/01/facebook-community…
Thanks for clearing that up. Although I'm not a huge Facebooker but I was wondering what happened to my Fans. I wonder if people really will be more willing to Like a page, rather than Fan a page.
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