Rants, Raves and Digressions about the Facebook Term “Liker”
I read a post recently from Facebook that used the word “likers” to describe a Facebook user who clicked “like” for a piece of content (The Value of a Liker).
I thought the term “liker” was repulsive when I first read it, but I’ve found myself using it to refer to people who’ve “liked” an official Page on Facebook (a.k.a. Business Pages). It’s much quicker to say “liker” than “someone who likes your page on Facebook” or “your page connections.” You can’t simply refer to the once-called-fans as the number of page “likes” as that removes the human quality of who is actually behind the likes (“Our ‘likes’ are really growing” isn’t humanizing at all, and that’s the whole point of building a community on Facebook—you’re building a community of people not likes). “Fan” simply conveyed all of this during the “become a fan” button era of Facebook. Remember the days when a business page simply sought to increase its number of fans?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of “connecting with a page” over “becoming a fan.” By becoming a fan a Facebook user is showing a one-sided affinity to a brand, whereas when someone likes a page, the person connects with the brand; this in terminology (which affects perception and behavior) fosters more of a two-way dialogue and relationship between a brand and its community (even though “fan” is still commonly accepted by the non-Facebook nerd and non- early-embracer community). Of course, I’d rather “connect” with something or “like” something over “fanning” it, a much more one-sided and strong term (which, from the grapevine, is one reason Facebook uses the word “like”: it causes less friction for users to associate themselves lightly with a company). For the record, I have nothing against the word “like”. I like many things (but that doesn’t make me a likerrrr).
This is a great case study on the importance of language, because the social actions and broadcasting of what happens when someone clicks the “like” button hasn’t changed (I’m strictly talking about in reference to Pages—not like buttons on external sites on Facebook…that’s a whole other rant). Anyway, the results are the same as when a user clicked “become a fan,” but due to the terminology change, users feel more comfortable and are more apt to “like” a brand (increased “like” activity for Pages supports this statistically). Words are powerful things.
“Liker” just gets under my skin; it has a harsh sound to it. Lie-kha-errr. It’s guttural and doesn’t roll off the tongue. And that last “rrr” gets stuck at the back of my throat like a glob of peanut butter. Nothing sounds appealing about being a “liker” from the user standpoint–or maybe it’s just my user standpoint. Fan is something I can identify with, even if it doesn’t foster that two-way connection that I mentioned earlier. But as a good Facebook marketer, I’ve gotten on the Facebook terminology bandwagon , and I started using the mouthfuls “connections of your page” or “people who like your page” to refer to the Facebook users who click the “like” button for your official Facebook page. Yet, after this whole rant and rave about the term “lie- ck-ck-ck-errrrr,” I’ve found myself using it simply because it isn’t a mouthful and does convey a person in a short and concise way. Has laziness (or, I’d like to think, the path of least resistance) won out here? I shamelessly admit that for the time being I find myself using the term “liker” and that it creeps up into my conversations concerning Facebook Pages. Internally, I cringe every time I say it, but this hasn’t stopped me from using it, either. I fear the day when I become complacent and have gotten so used to it that I’ve simply cowered to “liker.”
Maybe this rant and rave is really a cry for help. Please help—what’s a short and succinct word that refers to people who have “liked” a Page on Facebook that is within the realms of Facebook terminology (sorry “fans”) and not as awkward sounding as the term “liker”? Any suggestions?
Ex: We’re really proud of our company’s business page on Facebook because overnight it grew to over 500 [fill in the blank with ONE WORD that isn’t “fans” or “likers”].
Go!
