Facebook finally realizes that consumers are afraid of commitment
Is anyone really surprised that Facebook changed its functionality from “become a fan” to “like”? To be honest, hearing this news is about the equivalent of someone telling me that guys in college don’t want a girlfriend, they just want to get laid. Truth be told, the average consumer doesn’t possess the type of brand loyalty that warrants fan status and the average Page administrator doesn’t have the intention of building a real, meaningful relationship with users anyway. Fans by definition are people who are enthusiastic devotees, diehard admirers and sometimes even addicts. These are the people that marketers should court on their hands and knees, the kinds of people who deserve more than a Facebook one-night stand.
For years, I’ve always felt that Facebook gave lazy marketers an ego boost by providing a metric that said marketers were doing their jobs better than they actually were. As consumers, “becoming a fan” never really meant much beyond the word “like”. There were no real relationships there, no real types of meaningful engagement.
Facebook’s decision to switch from “fan” to “like” feels logical, natural, and really very necessary. The ecosystem today is one giant meatmarket of brands and products vying for our attention. At the end of the day, we as consumers have no desire to commit to contrived relationships. Luckily for us, Facebook just gave us an easy out.
