On April 21, Facebook announced a new feature which is big for marketers- it’s the new “like” button. This is a button that website owners can put next to products, articles, or features on their sites. When users click the button, a link to that page, article or product appears in their Facebook newsfeed for all their friends to see. Facebook predicted that one billion of these links would be shared within 24 hours of the feature’s launch.
Who’s Using This? Levis, among others, is putting this feature to work right away. When you visit the Levis website to shop for jeans you’re greeted by a headline that says “Declare Your Likes” – Levis has devoted the majority of its home page to a promotion for this new feature. As you browse jeans, there is a blurb below each product with the Facebook logo, the word “like” and the number of people who have “liked” that pair. So customers instantly see the relative popularity of different kinds of jeans, and if one of your Facebook friends has already “liked” a pair of jeans, you’ll see their photo next to that pair! Every time someone ‘likes” a pair, a blurb about that pair appears on their Facebook wall for all their friends to see. CNN.com is another major website using the new “like” feature to spread its news stories.
The new “like” button eliminates the old “become a fan” so now Facebook users can “like” brands on Facebook just as they “like” articles, products or features on other websites.
Who Benefits?
For the 400 million+ current Facebook users, this new feature is a convenient way to share information with friends. For publishers like CNN this is a way to get more eyes on their content. For marketers like Levis, this is a new way of generating buzz and awareness about products. And this feature may become a way to strongly optimize websites for search engines- all those in-coming links through Facebook newsfeeds may increase a website’s visibility on Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Implications For Facebook, this new feature has a particularly powerful benefit- it provides Facebook with new details about its users’ behavior, information that could be used to target advertising with revolutionary precision. Want to reach men 18-21 who are single, prefer Levis original style jeans, live in Pennsylvania, read about baseball and listen to Brad Paisley? No problem. But Facebook is going to have to proceed cautiously in offering this capability to marketers because of privacy concerns.
Do you “like” what Facebook is doing? How are you planning to use it?
Facebook Launches “Like” Button: Marketers Get Powerful New Tool
On April 21, Facebook announced a new feature which is big for marketers- it’s the new “like” button. This is a button that website owners can put next to products, articles, or features on their sites. When users click the button, a link to that page, article or product appears in their Facebook newsfeed for all their friends to see. Facebook predicted that one billion of these links would be shared within 24 hours of the feature’s launch.
Who’s Using This?
Levis, among others, is putting this feature to work right away. When you visit the Levis website to shop for jeans you’re greeted by a headline that says “Declare Your Likes” – Levis has devoted the majority of its home page to a promotion for this new feature. As you browse jeans, there is a blurb below each product with the Facebook logo, the word “like” and the number of people who have “liked” that pair. So customers instantly see the relative popularity of different kinds of jeans, and if one of your Facebook friends has already “liked” a pair of jeans, you’ll see their photo next to that pair! Every time someone ‘likes” a pair, a blurb about that pair appears on their Facebook wall for all their friends to see. CNN.com is another major website using the new “like” feature to spread its news stories.
The new “like” button eliminates the old “become a fan” so now Facebook users can “like” brands on Facebook just as they “like” articles, products or features on other websites.
Who Benefits?
For the 400 million+ current Facebook users, this new feature is a convenient way to share information with friends. For publishers like CNN this is a way to get more eyes on their content. For marketers like Levis, this is a new way of generating buzz and awareness about products. And this feature may become a way to strongly optimize websites for search engines- all those in-coming links through Facebook newsfeeds may increase a website’s visibility on Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Implications
For Facebook, this new feature has a particularly powerful benefit- it provides Facebook with new details about its users’ behavior, information that could be used to target advertising with revolutionary precision. Want to reach men 18-21 who are single, prefer Levis original style jeans, live in Pennsylvania, read about baseball and listen to Brad Paisley? No problem. But Facebook is going to have to proceed cautiously in offering this capability to marketers because of privacy concerns.
Do you “like” what Facebook is doing? How are you planning to use it?