Turning Customers into “Likes” on Facebook

By Kyle Austin

One of the overarching goals on Facebook for most companies has been turning casual customers into “fans” of the brand. That goal will have to change for brands – at least semantically.

According to documents that Facebook is providing ad agencies and brands, the language they use when people connect with brand pages will be changing. People will soon connect with your brand pages by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.”

The reason behind the change is somewhat telling of the way Facebook believes brands and advertisements should fit within the “social graph.”

“People already ‘Like’ their friends’ status updates, photos and links everyday. In fact, people click ‘Like’ almost two times more than they click ‘Become a Fan’ everyday.”

In that sense, the move to clicking “like” will naturally fit within the daily interactions of people on Facebook and no matter how you define it, those that are willing to click on brands are powerful brand endorsers. A recent Harvard Business Review case study of one brand’s efforts on Facebook illustrated that. Dessert Gallery, a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain, found that their “fans” (people that now “like” them) :

• Went to their stores 20% more often than non-fans and gave the chain the highest share of their overall dining-out dollars
• Were the most likely to recommend the chain to friends
• Reported significantly greater emotional attachment to the chain
• Were the most likely to say they chose the store over other establishments whenever possible

Those are impactful metrics that have bottom-line value for businesses.

4 comments March 31st, 2010