What Facebook’s Recent Change Means for Your Company’s Fan Page

Facebook is changing the way users interact with brands.  Before, you could become a fan of a company or product.  Now, the “Become a Fan” button will be replaced with a “Like” button and you will be a “Connection” rather than a “Fan”.

According to Facebook, users click the “Like” button almost twice as much as they do “Become a fan” on a daily basis.  This new change will help brands accumulate “Connections” quicker, but may end up leaving Facebook users confused.

The change will no longer allow brands to communicate with users who “like” a particular post, photo or link.  Only users who “like” a page itself will see updates in their news feed and notifications.

The change Facebook is making will also affect advertisements.

The “Like” button and a thumbs up icon will replace the “Become a Fan” button, in the advertisement.

Facebook does not plan to openly communicate the change with its users, so there will be some confusion about the difference between “liking” a page versus “liking” a page’s update.  Inevitably, users will subscribe to pages they didn’t want or intend to — for example, people may click the “Like” button on an ad thinking they are liking the business or product, when they are actually subscribing to the updates without being redirected to the page.

This new change will increase the amount of engagement ads purchased on Facebook.  Since “liking” content is a much easier process than becoming a fan, users will be apt to click an ad that has a “Like” button rather than an ad inviting them to “Become a Fan”.

Even though Facebook is not communicating the change to their users, businesses should update their current “fans” on the changes. ”Become a Fan” verbiage on creative, blogs and websites will soon be irrelevant, but “Find us on Facebook” always works.