Facebook Pages have changed ‘Become a Fan’ to ‘Like’ a Page: how will you invite people to become a member of your Facebook Fan Page community now?
Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: April 19th, 2010 | 30 Comments | Posted in: Content Marketing, Facebook, Social media, Social networking
UPDATE: 21.49pm – You may or may not see the change from ‘become a fan’ to ‘like’ a page as this evening it seems to have switched back so Facebook were probably testing the feature. At least we know what it may potentially now look like!
As we have been previously but unofficially notified about ‘Become a Fan’ becoming ‘Like’ a page on Facebook, the switch seems to have happened.
According to a confidential e-mail sent to ad agencies back on the 29 March 2010, Facebook gave them prior warning that it would be changing the “Become A Fan” button to read “Like”.
The memo went on to say that users have been clicking the current “Like” feature nearly twice as often as the “Become A Fan” button and that using “Like” more often will increase engagement between consumers and brands.
The memo read:
Like’ offers a simple, consistent way for people to connect with the things they are interested in. These lighter-weight actions mean people will make more connections across the site, including with your branded Facebook Pages. We believe this will result in brands gaining more connections to pages since our research has shown that some users would be more comfortable with the term ‘Like’. The goal is to get the most user connections so that you can have ongoing conversations in the news feeds of as many users as possible.
Many businesses I know have felt uncomfortable about asking people to become a ‘Fan’ of their page – though I don’t know that I would say ‘Come on over and Like my page’.
Remember there also has to be a reason for people to join your community so perhaps it would which will give them a reason to ‘Like’ you.
Here’s an example of the ‘Like’ button on the KLM Facebook Page. KLM is also a great example of how to make your Facebook Page relevant (and even at a time of crisis) to your customer or consumer – take a look at how they are using Facebook to answer questions about flight information and FAQ’s as a result of the current volcanic eruption in Iceland.
For now, those of us who have a landing page on Facebook that says ‘become a Fan’ or we have integrated it into our offline or online marketing collateral will need to review where we need to make changes to our calls to action.
What will you change yours to? I wonder how long it will take for us to adapt to this new turn of phrase? Probably when we have Facebook will have another change in store for us!
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