Oh Facebook, what have you done now. In case you haven’t logged in recently, FB just launched a new feature called Community Pages. The intent is that these pages would be a collection of info on a given topic, like cooking, or kayaking. Sounds good, right? It is, however they made a major switch to do this. There are no more “fans”, you can only “like” a page. The repercussions of this change run deep, so let’s explore the complications this presents to you and your brand.

The Basics: Definitions

According to internets, the definitions are as follows:

Fan: an enthusiastic devotee, an ardent follower or admirer
Like: to find enjoyable or agreeable, to be fond of

The is a significant difference in the meaning here. Fan implies a certain level of passion towards something. It is the word that has been used for decades to describe our own love of a given sports figure, musician, artist, organization, company, etc. “Like” is the word you use when you don’t love something, it’s just a step away from tolerate.

“Fan” had become a part of the FB brand. It has now thrown it away. It was nearly to the point, if not there already, where you could say “I have 2,327 fans” and people would conclude that you were referring to FB fans.

“Like” also has an obvious opposite: “dislike”. Which creates a bit of tension if are confronted with it. Do you like <subject>? No? Then you must dislike it. It’s pretty black and white. When asked if you’re a fan of the same subject and say “no”, there’s no negative connotation, as a matter of fact, you can respond with “I like <subject>, just not a fan.” Fan is more than like.

How do you market “Like”?

Ok, fine, so we’re stuck with “like”, so what? Well, you used to be able to tell someone “I have 2,327 fans”. Now you have to say “I have 2,327 people who like <insert subject>”. Let’s just hope we never get to calling them “likers” or something silly like that.

In your marketing materials it used to be cool to say “Become a Fan” on Facebook. Now your material is out of date! Just look at this example from the Reese’s page:

This ad has it all. Large headline “Become a fan…”, “Click Become a Fan Above” on the bottom, left. Well above is now just a “Like” button. “Our Facebook Fans have access to…”. What would this say now? “Our Likers have access to…” or “People who Like our page have access to…”? You sure can’t just say “People who like us have access to…” Many people like,  not all are fans. The last snippet of this ad I’ll point out is the line: “Calling all Reese’s Lovers.” Note is says lovers, not likers. “Like” is not the way to express your devotion to something or someone.

For the record, I more than like Reese’s PB cups.

So now it’s back to the agency to have your ad updated and reinserted into your page. How much will that cost you? Thanks Facebook!

Repercussions past facebook.com

Another example of the problems this causes takes place outside of the FB domain. Here’s a “before” shot from site displaying an embedded FB widget:

Now it’s this and no longer makes sense:

If you don’t know about FB, this is worthless. “Become a Fan” was intuitive. “Like” and “153″ is confusing. Call the agency again, have it removed. How much we up to now?

Got a print ad, radio or TV spot? Keep the money coming. Maybe big agencies are running FB and this is a way to generate business?

Facebook knows they have a problem

For our last example, let’s look at the Lehigh Valley Polish Water Ice page. They’re trying to help Cystic Fibrosis so become a f… oh, um… “like” them. Besides the obvious verbiage problems described above, Facebook itself has not covered all of it’s bases. Scrolling down the page a bit you will find this:

So what’s this? “2 fan photos”? Clicking on the link brings you to the Photos tab and the heading of “Fan Photos” remains consistent. I’m confused, who are fans? Likers? Should this be labeled “2 Liker photos”? What the heck is a “Liker”?

One last repercussion

I’m sure there’s more I didn’t realize, but I’ll just end on this one. Many pages are formed for fun and silly reasons, and becoming a fan was a fun part on FB. You can be a fan of say, “People who jump out of airplanes” and your profile would display “<Name> became a fan of People who jump out of airplanes”. Now it’s “<Name> likes People who jump out of airplanes”, which may not be entirely true. I don’t know anyone who jumps out of airplanes. I may be a fan of something, but that doesn’t always mean I like it or the people doing it.

C’mon FB, don’t fix what ain’t broke. Because now you broke stuff for a lot of people!

1. Josh Says:
   April 21st, 2010 at 2:20 pm

   This is what happens when you get a bunch of engineers together to solve a problem that didn’t exist in the first place.

   Good point about Facebook discarding its equity in the term “Fan.” It had weight approaching something like Digg’s domain specific language, “Digg” and “Bury”. “Like” is both bland and ubiquitous.

   And they might want it that way. By the time you read this comment, Facebook probably already announced its embeddable, universal “Like” button iframe that developers can place on just about any web page. This breaks Facebook out of its walled garden in a big way, in to the Internet-at-large. The data collected by Facebook through Like Button clicks will be associated with your Facebook profile in interesting ways and sold (hopefully in aggregate form) as marketing data. “Like” is so bland and innocuous… why not click a few?

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