Fans, Facebook, and You.

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Once upon a time, a fan was simply a way to catch a cool breeze. You held it in one hand and fluttered it up and down by your face. Paper, bamboo, plastic, a fashion accessory. 


Spectator sports brought about a whole different kind of fan; loud at times, loyal, swelling with pride and perhaps swigging a brew.


And then there are those “fans” in Social Media, namely Facebook. Remember “fanning” a page? Despite the changeover of terminology, we’re stilling referring to them as our fans (at least I am). “Likers” just sounds too awkward.


Who ARE these people who have indeed “fanned”, oops, “liked” your page? They include: 
Your friends (admit it; you may have strong armed a few however they generally have an interest for your page else they wouldn’t be there in the first place)

• Your friend’s friends (since they may see activity for your page)
• People who searched on Facebook and happened to find you 
• Tweeps or users of other social networks (if you are promoting your page on Twitter or elsewhere)
• Enthusiasts (who will share and promote you if they really dig you.)
• Friends of enthusiasts who are enthusiasts (who found your page via their friends)
• Spammers (they’ll post spam soon after liking your page so they’re not there for long unless you've been ignoring the upkeep of your page)
• Fans who are “Talking About This”: They consist of new fans “liking” the page, clicking like on a post, commenting on, tagging, mentioning or sharing a page, checking in (if you have a location) and those who are coming to an event (if your page offers events). These are important fans!

Note that a fan can fall into more than one of these categories.


Where do YOUR new fans come from? Are they mostly your friends? If so, concentrate on growing that fan base since your friends may not be typical enthusiasts of your product or service, thus skewing the demographic information that Facebook provides. Not a breeze to do but they may catch wind of you via a Facebook ad or via your blog if you have one.


And why did Facebook make the change in the first place? They state: To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we've changed the language for Pages from "Fan" to "Like." We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.


Hello Facebook, this rationale is rather broad in scope. Would have been nice to have asked US first. Or are you planning to use a 1 to 10 scale at some point (see my thoughts on that issue here). 


It’s been over a year and half since the change, Are you stilling calling them “fans”?
Donovan “caught the wind” early on his career. Click here to enjoy his folky sounds.


This blog is part of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Here's E, D and C.

How do I LOVE something on Facebook? An idea.

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“I don’t just like it, I LOVE it!!!” In addition to clicking “like”, someone posted comment this on one of my Facebook pages the other day. Got me thinking; wouldn’t it be nice to have degrees of like on Facebook? Hmmm…now there’s a true blend of Market Research and Social Media.

Imagine this. There’s one of your favorite songs of all time. You eagerly click on the little arrow and play it. And play it again. And again. And all you can do is “like” it. Why not have the opportunity to rate it a 10 (based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being you absolutely heart heart heart it and 1 being I wouldn’t listen to it if it was the only song available to me on a desert island). What would having a “like” rating scale tell us?

On a Facebook page it would give a better indication of how truly passionate people are (or not so passionate) about the sort of posts you’re putting out there. And, it would be instant feedback. So, if something’s going right, you’ll know. On the other hand, if you’re bombing miserably, you’ll know that too. That’s actually a good thing, because then you tweak your strategy right away and try something else.

A rating scale would provide more meaningful quantitative information (as opposed to a count of likes) in additional to the qualitative comments. Granted, sample size could be small but at the very least could be viewed as directional. Sometimes, I received over 30 likes for any given post (out of just over 1,800 “likers” currently) on one of my Facebook pages. Not bad. And there could be up to 10 comments in addition to those likes. Let’s me know right away that this post is a success. I may tuck that information away and use that very same post again or something similar in the near future.

But it’s about more than one post; several post likes can be viewed collectively too. Posting a number of items that are related and getting a positive reaction to each (let’s say five posts with over 100 likes) could tell us that we’ve struck a positive chord. Do keep in mind that there are likely to be multiple likes among those posts, indicating that the overall subject matter is resonating.

Degrees of like would tell us if a post is a runaway success with many 9’s and 10’s or merely an “eh, it’s okay” with a multitude of 5’s and 6’s.

This methodology could be telling for personal profiles too. If you’re constantly telling your friends that you’re dining at McDonalds this evening, maybe you’ll learn that your friends are rather lukewarm to this information. But when you post really cute photos of your dog or kids, it’s hitting your friends on all 8 cylinders with the good old emotional tug. How do you know this? All your relatives rated it a 10, and most of your childhood friends were in the 8 to 10 range. Meanwhile, those 15 comments brought the story on home.

So, how ‘bout it Facebook? Can you do a little enhancement for those of us who get excited by numbers?

Do you Lament the Lack of a Facebook “Dislike” Button?

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I recently posted a link to a song I enjoy listening to on my Facebook profile. Some conversational posting ensued; apparently I have friends that share my “good” taste. The postings then gravitated into a few jokes regarding an opening band at a show I attended with friends on Saturday night.

So, when I saw the posting that merely said “NOOOOOOOOOO”, I assumed my friend didn’t like my song choice. Actually, that wasn’t it at all. Turns out it was about the anticipated dread of the opening band’s videos on YouTube, which, thankfully, hasn’t happened yet.

But this did get my brain thinking to how many times I’ve seen friends complain about the lack of a “dislike” button and then going on to join a group supporting such a function. And, yes, one can certainly argue this dilemma either way. No need to turn blue in the face though. And no, the issue isn’t anything new, since the “like” feature for posts has been around for quite a while now.

So, what to do if you really DO “dislike” something? Well, you could just ignore it. Posts will continue to appear, and this one will get buried in the stream before long. But what if you’re really compelled to say something. So, post. Go ahead. Post your opinion. It’s okay. Not everyone expects you to “like” everything; who does? Now, here’s an opportunity to be creative. Offer an alternative, a solution, a new way to look at a situation, or an idea. Build upon that post, and take it a step further, encouraging further engagement in a lively way. Friendly debate IS okay!

So what does Facebook have to say about this subject? Well, nothing. They DO tell you how to “unlike” something by clicking again on the like button, but nothing about “dislike”. And, unsurprisingly, a quick search in Facebook yields a few hundred pages that you can join to support the cause for a “dislike” button. One of the most original ones is named “We ask for a "Dislike" button and you replace "Become a Fan" with "Like". We ask for "Become a Fan" back... You give us "Like this Comment" -_-" Thank you facebook.” Whew. What a mouthful.

And, for those of you that MUST have it, there’s a Firefox plug-in offers the capability of disliking to your heart’s content.

And for me, personally? I’ll say to you, in my best Jersey accent “Dislike button… fugetaboutit”. Really! Who needs it?

Do you have to “like” a Facebook Page about Ninja Turtles?

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Do you get suggestions to join pages all the time? I sure do. From my friends of course. And I’ll be honest, some of those pages hold little interest for me. But, what the heck, I join most of them anyway. Why? Well, at best, even if I’m not an active participant, at least I’m helping a legit business grow their fan base. And it’s endorsed by a friend.

So what do you do when you get a suggestion to “like” a page? Number one, simply go ahead and like it. Two, ignore the suggestion. Forever. Perhaps the friend won’t notice. However, the friend WILL notice if you do join, plus you’ll make them feel good.

But what happens when you join something you don’t actually like. Ninja Turtles? Are you kidding me? Ok, perhaps my friend is a few years younger than me, grew up with Ninja Turtles and I want to humor her. The good news is you don’t have to look at the posts. Just hide them. Simple.

Then there’s the "sneaky" way out. This is a soft approach for all of you out there that don’t want Ninja Turtles listed in your profile as a page you’ve joined. Let’s say the Ninja Turtles page has over 6,000 “likers”. Go ahead and “like”. Wait a couple of weeks and "unlike". Go ahead, you can do it. What’s the likelihood they’ll notice that you’re one of 6,000+ that is no longer there. Pretty minimal. Don’t even think about trying this with a page with a small number of likers. You’ll probably get caught by your friend, and suffer the consequences. Boo hoo.

Before you say no, DO give the page a chance. At least take a look at what it’s about, the quality of the posts, and whether it’s truly engaging. You may discover something new. And realize that your Facebook friend has interests you never knew about. How cool is that?

And remember, suggesting to a friend to like a Facebook page is a two-way street. Think about who you are sending the suggestion to before you send. Is it something they might be interested in, or perhaps already have an interest in? Recently, I was invited to like a page about a movie with breast cancer as the theme. Indeed, I liked. In turn, I sent suggestions to a few female friends, some of whom are survivors. The response was overwhelming because I carefully picked friends who would be more likely to see this movie when it’s released. Makes sense, no?