According to a article from the Associated Press yesterday. Facebook is about to change the “become a fan” button on public profiles, or fan pages, to “like”
Facebook already lets people show that they like comments or pictures posted on the site, and it says users click that term almost twice as much as they click “become a fan.” Facebook says changing the button will make users more comfortable with linking up with a brand and will streamline the site.
Businesses use Facebook pages, which are free to create, to connect with their customers and promote their brands. Facebook makes money from the advertisements these companies often use to draw users to their pages. The average user becomes a fan of four pages each month, according to Facebook.
This seems like a strange change to me and a confusing way to get more people to link up with public profiles. There’s a reason that more people click the “like” button than “become a fan”. The wording is not the reason, they are two fundamentally different things. Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media commented that, “In many ways it’s a lower threshold.” He also said “like” is more natural. I disagree it is more like blurring the difference between the two. Hear are the definitions for clarification (from Meriam-Webster):
Fan – an enthusiastic devotee
or – an ardent admirer or enthusiastLike – to feel attraction toward or take pleasure in
In Facebook’s world this is what the two words mean:
By clicking “like” on something someone posted or said it just means you have given them a thumbs up and your friends can see this. (depending on your privacy settings) So this follows the definition of like “to feel attraction toward or take pleasure in.”
By “becoming a fan” it means that you will receive updates, you appear in the the profile’s fan list and a link to the page will show up on your profile. Someone that does this is more of “an enthusiastic devotee.”
There is one more difference between liking something and becoming a fan and I believe this is the key to the change. -> It also means that everyone including people not using Facebook can see that you are a fan of the public profile or company. People cannot change the privacy setting on this. It was recently changed in Facebook’s privacy settings.Check out Facebook’s blog for more info.
As Facebook is still under pressure to make money they are looking for ways to increase exposure to those that might give them money. So, by blurring the lines between “like” and “fan” which will inevitably create some confusion or at lease initially, is getting more exposure for companies that are using public profiles. Thinking about that, why would that matter? Because companies want to see the value in having public profiles. Once they see the value, in this case more exposure, they will be more willing to spend money. This could be by buying more advertising on Facebook to attract more “fans” or soon to be “likers”… giving Facebook more revenue.
