Say Good-bye to Having Facebook Fans

Written by on April 1, 2010 - 15 Comments
Categories: "Social Soup"

Just when you thought you were NOT confused on facebook…

Here comes ANOTHER change!


Facebook recently announced a ‘confidential’ change to the way people engage with fan pages.

While many are still trying to figure out the difference between a group and a fan page, Facebook is now going to change the verbiage from “become a fan” to “like”.

Not to be confused with liking a post, although you can still do that too! You can like a post, but not the page, or like the page.

Confused yet?

So was I! But it’s ok, we will get through it!

Here’s the ‘what’:

  • Fan pages will still be called fan pages.
  • You will no longer ‘become a fan’ though!
  • You will “like’ the page
  • You can ‘like’ JUST the post (as you do now)
  • If you like the post, you just like it
  • If you like the page, you have subscribed to it (like becoming a fan)
  • Once you like the page, you will see that page’s updates in your stream
  • (I have no idea whether you will be able to un-like it)

So for those who hated the whole ‘fan thing’, you’ve got your wish!

No more fans.

What will you call your fans?

Facebook suggests that you call them ‘connections’ or ‘people who like us on facebook’ (not quite as catchy as facebook fan is it?)

Why the Language Change?

Well, according to facebook they are changing the language  people are much more likely (twice in fact) to ‘like’ something as click on ‘become a fan’. Since there is huge value for facebook to know what you like (and who, and what you do, etc), they want to make it easier to know what you like!

Contrary to popular belief, facebook is a business! The data that we as users provide them is valuable! So they want to make it easier to collect that data.

Another reason mentioned is that Facebook is adding the ‘like’ concept across the web as a whole and they want to maintain consistency. People are already in the ‘like’ habit, so they see this as an easier thing for people to understand. (See this article for more about that)

(I personally question the incentive of generating more ad revenue…)

So, what does all of this mean?

Well, for business owners it means that:

  • you will need to change any marketing materials, etc that say “fan” (you won’t want to appear out of date)
  • you may find that you have more ‘fans’ (or likers?) because they will be more inclined to click like than fan
  • you won’t be as sure that they are true fans however (in my opinion)
  • you may increase your ‘likers’ by the nature of more people clicking that like button means more of their friends see that connection

We won’t really know until it all begins.

For facebook users it means that you can

‘like’ a post on a page, or like the page without calling yourself  ‘a fan’.

It also means that you will be ‘signing up for’ posts from pages when you “like” the page, so you will want to pay attention and be aware of that.

None of us ‘likes’ change!

As frustrating as it might be at times, I try to remember that Facebook is an incredibly powerful tool than gives us tremendous value in many ways! Both personally and professionally! And we don’t pay a dime for it! (We pay only in the information that we provide it). Like everything else in life, when you get stuff for free, you have to take what is provided. “Like it” or not…

So, I will take a deep breath, think about all of the fun, joy and benefit that I value in facebook, and roll with it! Even though right now I dont’ really know if

I’ll LIKE it :)

What are your thoughts?

 

Related Posts:

  • Anne Bruening

    Interesting thoughts. It seems to me that people might be easily tricked into becoming a “fan/liker” and will not like that at all. I would feel somewhat conned. Becoming a “fan” – you know what you're getting into. You know that the business page will become a stream on your homepage. If they think you're twice as likely to get someone to like your page………I think it's because you're twice as likely to be fooled into becoming a “likerfan”.

    Of course……..there's nothing you can do about it. Does that mean people will have to re-like our page because they will get un-fanned? That could be incredibly disappointing. Guess we don't have any control over it so we shall see. I think I'll put your article on my page so other business people I know can see what's going to be happening.

  • http://heathero.com HeatherO

    Thanks for commenting Anne. My GUESS is that your fans will still be getting your updates.
    I agree that some will feel 'tricked' in some respects, at least until they figure out what is going on. I guess will see if that makes people 'like-phobic', which would be the opposite of what FB is going for!
    I am also curious about whether you will be able to 'un-like'? I guess we will see! :)

  • http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/heathero.com/2010/04/say-good-bye-to-having-facebook-fans/ uberVU – social comments

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by HeatherO: Facebook doing away w/fans? http://bit.ly/bu1u2L...

  • http://www.reinventionqueen.com/ Maryellen Smith

    Thank you very much Heather for this timely and helpful post.

  • Molly Ogren

    Thanks for the overview, Heather. As I understand it, you as the Fan Page owner will not be able to see your “likers” unless they are also your friends on FB. But, FB will have all of the information regarding who likes what page, to use to better target FB ads to those people. It's quite a change, I think…makes gathering “liker” information through your FB fan page into your email list a lot more important…

  • http://twitter.com/olalah Olalah Njenga

    I LIKE the shift. No pun intended. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/cokabunny Elizabeth

    Well I dont know if I really prefer the change. I do not approve of this confidential change. It just seems “shady”. What I do LIKE is how you so carefully explained how it affects us, as, fans or connections (or is that “connectors”?)

  • http://heathero.com HeatherO

    Yes Molly, they will! They had info on who was a fan too ;)
    So you could target ads, but now businesses be more inclined to buy them? to need them?
    FB says the fact that they will be visible under members 'likes' on their info page that it will drive more traffic…I'm not so sure!

    We will see!

  • http://heathero.com HeatherO

    I agree Elizabeth. I don't understand why they refuse to explain these things. I guess they think others will :)
    I'm glad you 'liked' my post though!
    Guess we will see how it all plays out…until the next change! lOL

  • Molly Ogren

    Oh, I know that they did! But with the fans, the owner of the fan page also could see who their fans are. My understanding of this change from a webinar that I was on today is that unlike fans, when you own a fan page and have “likers (or whatever),” you will not be able to see who they are unless they are also your friends…can't build your list that way any more. I don't know for certain that this is the case, but it's what was being spread around today. You're right, we'll see!

  • http://twitter.com/maggielmcg maggielmcg

    I'm wondering if they're re-thinking the fan thing because yesterday the page I administer had switched to the new format–instead of “XXX fans” it said “XXX people like this page”. Today it's back to “XXX fans.” I am REALLY hoping they backpedal on this one because I just hate it. IMO if something is THIS complicated requiring weird explanations from Facebook that don't even make sense, it's not a good idea. Why do they have to make everything so complicated? Facebook feels to me like they're doing slight-of-hand stuff to confuse users into sharing more personal information than they intended so Facebook can make money selling their data or making it available to marketers.

  • dianetuman

    Good post, Heather — thanks for breaking down the changes. As luck would have it, we rolled out a sweepstakes that said “Fan Us on Zillow” for a chance to win an Apple iPad. The next day, Facebook made its verbiage change. Ugh. We're sticking with the language since the Sweepstakes was a very short duration, but what a pain!

  • Lindsey Chester

    I'm not liking “LIKE”. and what happened to all my friends on the side. And what's this rumor about them charging us $14.99 beginning in July? Lots of chatter today on Facebook ABOUT Facebook. ANd frankly it's just getting less user friendly than ever.
    When they create a “DisLike” button I will be super happy

  • http://heathero.com HeatherO

    Oh no! That stinks. I wish I had known, I would've let you know. I wrote this 2wks before the change. Funny thing is, facebooks own ads still stay become a fan, so I wouldn't worry too much about it :)

  • http://heathero.com HeatherO

    Well Lindsey, honestly, if they did charge for it then we would have more leverage in complaining. Since it's free, not much we can say about it.