How genuine are Facebook Likes (for business)?

December 20, 2011 8:26 pm admin Facebook

When using Facebook for business, what does a Facebook ‘Like’ actually mean?  Does it mean that the person who clicked that Like button actually liked what they saw on the page?

Sometimes: yes.

In many cases: no.

Facebook has huge traffic (even higher than Google) and what determines Facebook search results are a combination of two things:

1. Keywords used in the title of the page.
2. Number of likes the page has.

As an example, look at the screenshot below, which shows a business with 18,692 Likes, streets ahead of the next one down.

Is it really the case that so many people liked that business?  Well, considering that business sells packages such as this one below, it’s quite unlikely …

So, if you’ve got the money, then you can have as many Facebook Likes as you want to have.  Very few of them will be people that actually like your business but they’ve been paid to press your Like button.

The problem with this is that it makes the whole concept of ‘Likes’ a bit of a joke and, actually, meaningless.

But there are many many stupid people out there who will search for something on Facebook, will see a listing top, with numerous likes, and will think “Durrrr, they must be good because all those people liked them”.

These are the types of people who are also probably glued to the X-Factor each week, or who rush out to buy the latest fashions, trotting down the street going “Baaah, Baaah” like everyone else, who sheepingly (is that a word?!) believe: “if it’s popular, it must be good”.

The phrase ‘social proof’ is bandied around a lot – if people like something online then that must be good.  My view is that with the availability to ‘buy your friends’, instead of ‘social proof’ it should be ‘social bluff’!    Like the hated kid at school who buys their friends with sweets because their Dad is loaded, this is the modern day online equivalent .

So where does the future lie?  When will people wise up that something that’s ‘Liked’ isn’t necessarily genuine?  Probably not for some time yet but there are answers to this …

Suppose Facebook got clever.  Suppose that instead of ranking by Likes they took those Likes into consideration but ranked mainly by ‘interaction’.

So, if John Smith ‘Likes’ ABC Ltd, that’s one tick in the box.   If John Smith goes back to the ABC Ltd page and interacts on there on a reasonable frequency, then that’s extra ticks in the boxes.  If John Smith is included in the ‘Top 100 people we know’ list that ABC Ltd has, then that’s another tick in the box.  John Smith is genuine.  He is real.  He is interacting.  John Smith is worth 100 x ‘Likes’ that have no interaction beyond that initial (paid) click of a button.

Taking that concept, companies would be more proactive with their Facebook pages and nurturing ‘real’ people – and Facebook would regain some credibility.  Perhaps even the concept of ‘Like’ could disappear to be replaced by something that has a more ‘quality’ angle to it.

Who knows where things will go but for now, the people with brains will choose to take large numbers of Likes on Facebook business pages with a pinch of salt.