The Banyan Theory Blog

Getting to Like Facebook Likes

Chris
posted by Chris
on
Likes seem to be the driving force behind companies and corporations making the transition into Facebook and social media. Why are all these companies out there trying to get people to click on their Like buttons? What actually happens when somebody likes your agency's Facebook Page?

Facebook 'like' button

Here’s what happens when a Facebook user clicks your Like button and becomes one of your fans:

Exposure

When a user clicks Like, it creates a news story that will display in their friends’ news feeds (the news feed is the main source of information for Facebook users). This means that when their friends log in to Facebook, they’ll see a story that says “John Smith likes Lakeridge Insurance” (I’m using Lakeridge here as an example).” The news story includes a link that will take their friends to your agency’s Facebook Page.

Screenshot of Facebook news stream

Your agency will also be added to your fan’s personal profile under the Information section. While this isn’t a heavily visited page, it’s still possible that it will produce some traffic to your agency’s page. Unlike the news feed stories, as long as they like your page, your agency’s logo and link will stay on your fans’ profiles permanently.

Screenshot of Facebook profile likes

Keep your fans up to date

In addition to telling the world that they like you, your fans will be able to see updates that you make to the agency’s page in their own news feeds. This is a great way to stay in touch with your fans, since they have essentially subscribed to receive updates from your page. Any status updates, links or photos that you post to your agency’s page will show up in your fans’ news feeds, side by side with their friends’ activity.

Strength in Numbers

The total number of likes each page has received displays at the top of each page. While this doesn’t exactly correlate to online reviews, it can be viewed in a similar aspect. If I come across an insurance agency’s page and see that they have a couple hundred likes, it makes me think that the agency is doing something right.

Facebook 'likes' count

While you shouldn’t live and die by the number of likes that your agency receives, it does serve as a good metric of whether or not your are reaching people on Facebook. Stay tuned to this blog – we’ll be publishing more articles regarding Facebook Pages and how to manage them.

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