What is a Facebook Like?
I think i should start of this post by at least acknowledging that i have nothing against people that have asked me to "Like" their pages on Facebook, and in fact i thank you all as it got me thinking and led to me posting this blog.
So those that know me well know that i am not a massive Facebook fan I don’t use it personally only professional and only recently.
Why? a few reasons there is enough reasons to procrastinate without having another distraction, i know me and if i can see what all of my friends and family are up to i will engage and not be doing this that i should be that will lead to me achieving my goals.
Also Facebook is about friends and family primarily. People do not log on to Facebook to engage with brands and to be sold too. Horses for courses as they say. I think most small businesses miss this point and think that people want to see you promoting your latest product or service.
This leads me onto the page "Likes". I have had a few requests recently to like business connections pages and there is one key thing missing “WHYâ€. Why should i like your page what can i expect to see that is going to benefit either of us in this transaction.
Don’t misunderstand that it is a transaction as if i like your page it will do a couple of things. It will associate our brands to others. i.e.. people will see our brands connected and make assumptions. Does that connection help our respective message or story or does it confuse the message? The other thing it does it may or may not depending on lots of factors (Edgerank, another blog post that one) appear on my timeline as an update.
Time is precious enough and the more updates and paid for posts that appear in my stream the harder it is to find the ones i want to see on that platform.
So back to the “Why†what are you going to get out of this? Your posts may or may not appear in my stream but i think people want the “Like†to add to the total number of people that have already “Liked†your page right?
So social currency eh! Are people still in the mind-set that “Likes†matter? the more you have the more people will engage with your brand and therefore buy your product? Really?
Firstly the chances of your brands post appearing in their streams are unlikely and unless what you have to say is truly going to make a difference to that persons day/life do you even want it to?
I really value my audience and connections on any platform and  always put them first. I ask myself the questions
Is it not better to have prospective buyers and customers "Like" your page so they can get real value from your posts?
The numbers don’t impress me, there are so many companies today selling real likes and real followers at 10,000 at a time, any large number i look at is immediately greeted with scepticism. And if you only have a few hundred likes does that really do you any favours in terms of social currency?
So my advice is to think about your audience and who are the people you can really help with your product, service or cause. Treat the audience you have with useful and valuable content that will make a difference, don’t post what you had for breakfast or videos or dancing cats. Yes those thing maybe entertaining and get engagement but how does that help you achieve your goals or theirs?
Treat each and every single "Like" as an individual relationship, learn what you can about them and provide great content that will answer their questions.
I really value my audience and connections on any platform and  always put them first. I ask myself the question, "How is this going to serve my audience"?
Facebook is a really powerful tool along with lots of others but taking the time to understand each platform and the audience you have on each one is crucial. Post the right content in the right context for each platform.
With all this being said they are "Social Networks" and this does need to be taken into consideration and if you are using them for personal use and in most cases business too its important to be friendly, helpful and yourself.
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Author- Speaker - Consultant. Passionate about all things digital.