Facebook Changes "Become A Fan" Button to Like

I don't like the idea of making my friends become fans, and I'm not sure some of my friends have necessarily gained my respect enough to consider myself their fans. I've seen this complaint on the FB news feeds a lot!
With Facebook, suddenly any artist can have a "fan club", converting all their "friends" to "fans" and shifting how both fan and celebrity view their relationships with each other.
Well, now FB has changed the "become a fan" button to a "like" button as a way of garnering new members.
A bit deceptive, perhaps.  Just because I "like" someone, doesn't mean I want to hear absolutely everything about them.
Still, the "like" button does take things down to a more rudimentary, broader level. your friends just "like" you or at least something about what you do.
For you - the artist or business owner - your job is think of how to keep people liking you. Consider what that takes when you are determining what to communicate to your audience.

Groups or Pages on Facebook Explained

Found this useful article from Social Media Strategy and Marketing consultant Howard Greenstein. It helps to de-mystify these too FB functions.  One thing he doesn't mention is how Pages also offer "Insights" about visitors to the page gleaned from what FB already knows about these members, like age and gender.  Similar to Google Analytics.


“Should I create a group or launch a Page?” It’s the eternal question that gets asked as often as, “What is Twitter?” at introductory social media training classes. Ever since Facebook launched their Pages product as part of their larger advertising strategy (along with the ill-fated Beacon) in November 2007, there has been confusion over which to use. Because
 Groups and Pages have an overlapping feature set, even senior social media marketing consultants are sometimes stumped as to what to tell their clients. And Facebook continues to make changes to how Pages function, complicating the matter even further.

 Read more here>>>

Facebook In Real Life

Facebook makes it seem like developing friendships is easy, but look what happens if Facebook seeps into the "real" world in this comedy sketch from BBC's the Wall.

Marketing’s next wave: How technology can bring change

Came across this interesting article in the latest Village Vibes, from Charity Village.


By Elisa Birnbaum
June 18, 2007

If someone had told you a few years ago that they produced a video showcasing their organization’s cause and were uploading it on the same site that houses Saturday Night Live sketches, political campaign speeches and amateur musicians, you would have thought they were joking. Yet, that’s exactly what Christian Children’s Fund of Canada did recently when they placed a clip with their moniker on YouTube, a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. No longer considered unusual, nonprofits are becoming increasingly innovative to get their word out in a competitive charitable marketplace. And technology, in all its incarnations, is playing a key role.

Read the full story here...