Facebook: Moving from “Fan” to “Like”?
A recent announcement from Facebook explains a change in the use of the expression from “Fan” to “Like” for business pages and has users up in arms.
On April 19, 2010 Facbook announced, “As part of our efforts to improve the user experience, we’re changing the terminology for interacting with Pages from “Fan” to “Like.” This will offer users a lightweight and consistent way to connect with the businesses, people, and applications they’re passionate about.Starting today, we will begin using the term “Like” on Facebook and in Fan Boxes. All other Facebook Pages functionality remains the same.In the future, we recommend that you invite people to connect to your Page by saying “Find us on Facebook” or “Like us on Facebook.”
Source: http://developers.facebook.com/live_status.php
According to the announcement “All other Facebook Pages functionality remains the same”, however we have already noticed some minor differences. And although the announcement does not address paid advertising and click through rates, we believe that this is a major factor behind the decision. More clicks = more revenue.
We imagine that this may cause some confusion because one can already “Like” a post, update, photo, or video. With the new terminology in place, “Like” will now also mean a user will receive news feeds from the page.
With Facebook’s rapid growth, changes in the platform are not surprising. But as we all know, change is hard for many of us to accept. We’ve read comments on the Facebook message boards posted by users who aren’t so thrilled about the change…
“Please change it back to become a fan. You’ve also made it extremely difficult to see who’s a fan of my page. Big pain! Please put it back! Why don’t you ask your members next time?”
“Please can you change “like” back to “Become a Fan”. Really do not like the change!!!!!!!”
“what is the POINT of changing “fan” to “like” when a business cannot see who their audience is??? why fix what aint’ broke?”
Whether or not Facebook decides to stick with the phrase “Like” or switch it back is yet to be seen. We will be sure to keep you posted.