As part of a broader product rollout today, Facebook has officially pushed out the “Like” button on Facebook Pages. The change will surely confuse people as Facebook is reportedly pushing out a broader “Like” button as part of the new Open Graph API. Earlier today Facebook officially rolled out the new community pages that we previously covered, however it appears that this is a move toward a more structured web of interests as objects. In theory users will be able to “Like” brands, people, issues, and various broad topics.
As Facebook states, “With the introduction of Community Pages, connecting to Pages will now be the main way to express yourself on your profile.” While we will be learning more about Facebook’s new “Open Graph” concept later this week, today the company is rolling out product changes to support the new API. The shift to the like button is only one step in a much larger process. We’ll have more to come throughout the day.
![[Inside Social Apps 2012]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/ISA2012_336x100_F_RegisterNow.gif)
![[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/stpro_allfacebookstats.gif)
![[How can Facebook change your business?]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/FMB_A_MAY2011_336x100_F.gif)
So, now when it says on your feed that someone 'likes' a product/business/celebrity, it means they became a fan. And now you can no longer 'like' that they became a fan of something. And you can't comment about it either. Your only option is to 'Like' it, meaning become a fan. I think this is a negative for businesses.
Comment by MPH — April 19, 2010 @ 12:44 pm
Follow would make more sense. For example, I might follow a rival political party, just to see what they're up to, like on Twitter. Doesn't mean I'm either a fan or that I like it. But obviously they're wary of adopting Twitter's terminology.
Comment by Facebook User — April 19, 2010 @ 12:45 pm
Are you sure this is rolled out? I still see "Become a Fan"
Comment by Liam — April 19, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
I agree with you, William. "Like" is kind of loaded terminology. I prefer something more neutral like "follow" or "subscribe."
Comment by Trina Ochoa — April 19, 2010 @ 12:52 pm
If they would just enable RSS feeds like every other website on the planet, you could still follow a page without having to announce that you're a "fan" or that you "like" that organization.
Comment by deelirium — April 19, 2010 @ 12:53 pm
I think Facebook's on-site "Like" confusion with off-site "Like" is intentional on the part of Facebook, in order to condition people to accept it's 3rd party website tentacles.
Comment by MacSmiey — April 19, 2010 @ 1:00 pm
I have just tried it and it's quite nice, However I agree with you William, following a page does not necessarily mean you like the page rather the page has some information that interests you.
Comment by Rinforsideweb — April 19, 2010 @ 1:48 pm
I'm curious what this means for the fans you already have as well as the Fan Box widget. I just set up a page for my website yesterday can't seem to add a fan box widget. I wonder if this is because they are doing away with the fans?
Any info on how this "liking" will effect the widget?
Comment by Ashley — April 19, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
Except they’ve now changed it backk..
Comment by David King — April 19, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
I am officially confused, as I blogged with a screenshot earlier showing "Become a Fan" changed to "Like" but it seems it has since reverted back. See what I mean with my embedded screenshot and the sidebar widget at http://ariwriter.com/to-like-or-not-to-like-faceb...
Comment by Ari Herzog — April 19, 2010 @ 6:44 pm
Become A Fan makes a lot more sense for the music and radio pages I maintain. I agree a Follow or Subscribe would also work but if it ain't broke?
Comment by Cat — April 19, 2010 @ 11:48 pm
But once you "like" a page you still become a "fan". And how do you promote this, do you say come and like us on Facebook? I see what they're trying to do but it's going to be confusing for the customer.
Comment by Rich Tandler — April 20, 2010 @ 1:26 am
It's a great move by Facebook which will lead to many more connections. Blogging about it now @ theKbuzz.com. and Rich, you shouldn't have said "Become a fan" before anyway- you should have said – connect with us, share your questions @ , give us feedback @ etc. That doesn't change.
Comment by Dave Kerpen — April 20, 2010 @ 1:36 am
I do not “like” this. I said it in the other post where Barry commented and I’ll say it again. The whole point of those pages originally was to say you are a FAN of something. I might be a fan of Bones, but I HATE their Facebook page. The moderator says stupid things constantly. Now that it’s changed to a “like” page, does that means I should stop liking the page? I guess so. Why would you do something like this? It makes no sense.
Dave you suck. I'm going to your blog and writing commments now about how completely retarded you are for not realizing the full implications of this. I hope you understand this means that all the television, movie, actor/actress, random sayings, product brands, etc. Now I'm not a fan. I just "like" it. I like a lot of things, that doesn't mean I want to hear about them on Facebook. I am a FAN of only a few things.
Comment by Jess — April 20, 2010 @ 10:43 am
After your blog I still don't see why they had to get rid of fan pages all together. It still makes absolutely no sense.
Comment by Jess — April 20, 2010 @ 10:50 am
We hate the new format! this is not what we joined up for . We wish to maintian a Public figure FAN page and not a LIKE page. BTW/ how do you see your FAN List?
It doesn't seem to have a "see All" option anymore!!
Comment by Living Ahimsa — April 20, 2010 @ 11:05 am
DISLIKE. I want to become a fan. Not like.
Comment by Kaitlin Brittney War — April 20, 2010 @ 11:09 am
I hate it! I absolutely hate not being able to see the list of my fans like before. It surely is the most useless thing they have done yet. PLease bring back the old format!
Comment by Elaine — April 20, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
the frustrating thing, particularly for those of us who have created a fan page, is now we can't view all of the people who are "fans" of, or who "like" our page. we only get to see 6 people on the front page under the "## people like this page" or whatever. it's extremely maddening.
Comment by Eric — April 20, 2010 @ 12:08 pm
"Like" just doesn't fit. "Subscribe" or "Connect" sounds better, at least for the pages that I admin. But, having the feature work correctly is more important that what it's called. And right now it does not work … there is no way to see all the "fans" of a page. And this is important when you are a page admin.
Comment by Liz Gensheimer — April 20, 2010 @ 12:47 pm
It's to early to see all the implication of this new move but right now I can say that it really sucks because I don't have access to my fan list anymore, I'm only able to see 6 of them.
Comment by Alexandre Cedomir To — April 20, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
OK wow I am a FAN of facebook but why make this move it makes me feel like its a complete marketing ploy to only make facebook more profitable which is the ultimate goal of the the social network. I DISLIKE and HATE the whole doing away with the FAN button and not only that I have no way of being able to tell now who's FANS of my FILMS thanks A LOT FACEBOOK!!!
Comment by angryFAN!! — April 20, 2010 @ 1:34 pm
It would appear that since the change, on my fan page no longer can I see all of those who have joined. I used that all the time to 'shout out' on my radio show
Comment by Mark Jones — April 20, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
This is a seriously negative move and one which impacts my businesses. We were about to run a competition to give prizes to new fans and were all setup to do it, now we can't run the competition as we can't see who has joined our page.
Facebook – please stop moving the goalposts.
You are a big company now and many other smaller companies are coming to rely on your as a mainstream channel to customers. When you change how those channels operate, or alter functionality, you are now impacting other peoples' business models.
Please stop.
Comment by Nick C — April 20, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
DISLIKE! CHANGE IT BACK ITS CRAP!! :@:@:@
Comment by Laura Doyle — April 20, 2010 @ 3:57 pm
Ehh yeah this is really annoying.. Change it back it was fine the way it was!! I'm angry at you facebook >:( very angry ! :@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@
Comment by Kellianne Mc Carthy — April 20, 2010 @ 4:10 pm
we still need a block button on all facbook groups and fanpages especially apps so we can block and hide unwanted spam its getting to be anoying having to click ignore ..maybe instead of an ignore button that could be changed to BLOCK i think like follow is the last thing you should be thinking off
Comment by Richard — April 20, 2010 @ 5:43 pm
Most of the page paid for facebook advertisement. We are their clients. Should facebook told us all about this change before?
Comment by Kinney Chan — April 20, 2010 @ 9:01 pm
This change sucks.. Revert it back Facebook..
Comment by Daben Mendoza — April 20, 2010 @ 10:17 pm
This idea is no good at all.
1) Cannot remove it when don't wanna be the fan anymore
2) I can't find the pages in info tab.
3) If this is officially amended, WHY DID IT SELECTIVELY!!??? Why my friend's facebook still remain unchanged. This is really unfair!!!
4) If this is new community function, why can't 'Become a fan' function remain, while adding new 'Like' function?!!
WHY!!!???
Comment by caelwin — April 20, 2010 @ 11:42 pm
It could be fine, but I want to comment on other people's likings, why do they have to suppress comments or like on this? pfft.
Comment by Facebook User — April 20, 2010 @ 11:46 pm
I strongly "dislike" how my once private profile is now publicly showing my info. (Interests, etc.). It's just getting worse and worse, in my opinion.
Comment by John — April 21, 2010 @ 1:27 am
I think its such a dumbass change from Facebook … Becoming a fan was getting heaps of traction and becoming valuable to businesses which was surely something they were/will get revenue from. It just doesn't have the same ring to it now … hey everyone, come be a like of my like page.
Comment by lloyd — April 21, 2010 @ 2:07 am
It's a change to say the least and will take a while to get used to if they intend to keep it.
Comment by Around Greece — April 21, 2010 @ 5:03 am
We dislike this change, its awful ¡¡¡…"Like" is so boring that everyone will leave this pages… please CHANGE IT BACK ¡¡¡….this is not what we signed up for, we want to be FANS ¡¡¡……..
Comment by jav — April 21, 2010 @ 7:46 am
Why wreck something that works perfectly fine for the user and that everyone loves?
Instead of arbitrarily changing it and messing up the websites of all their users that promote themselves with a "fan box" Facebook should have at least allowed us the option of continuing to use the feature "as is" for a reasonable monthly price.
Facebook took their greatest business friendly feature and completely wrecked it. I was promoting the use of Facebook fan pages to all my business clients – now I look like an idiot.
I used to think whomever was running Facebook was a genius. Now I realize "idiot savant" is more likely the case.
Change it back or charge us to keep it the way it was!
Comment by Dan Baldwin — April 21, 2010 @ 8:05 am
'Become A Fan' was working great for me a musician with a fan page. I use facebook ads and what was close to a 1 to 1 fan per click of the ad has gone to 'zero' new 'likes' so I guess I wasting my money now on facebook ads because 'like' has confused people and messed it all up,…..
Comment by t — April 21, 2010 @ 6:22 pm
I really liked "become a fan" I wish facebook would quit making changes that make no sense!
Comment by JB — April 22, 2010 @ 5:45 pm
i really dislike the new format change it backkk !!!!!!!
Comment by Ryan Romondt — April 22, 2010 @ 6:41 pm
The most bothersome thing of all about Facebook Fan pages is that the admin of that page cannot suggest other pages to its own fans, AND it cannot become a fan of another Fan page. For example, if a musician has a fan page and his whole band has a fan page, the two can't be fans of each other. This is DUMB! (Why did they do this, anyone??)
Comment by Elaine — April 22, 2010 @ 8:52 pm
And now with the way they have changed how your interests work you are automatically signed up to LIKE pages just because you are interested in a band/movie/actor/etc. This is terrible. Please change it back so that we can list out what we like separately and become fans of pages that we actually want to hear information from. This is really terrible. I was trying to promote my website with an advertisement through Facebook and now I'm worried with the way the interests work that people are going to unlike my page because they don't understand what being "connected" to a page means. You don't explain anything when you introduce new content and you certainly don't care what your users think. If you don't change this back, this is the end of Facebook.
Comment by Jess — April 23, 2010 @ 9:05 am
I was so excited about our Facebook fan page but now I'm totally deflated.
Since this "Like" feature was enacted, our page hasn't had a single new fan.
When I speak to students during our school assemblies I usually say "Become a Fan" of our page. How do you tell 800 students to go "Like" your page: it's a marketing nightmare.
If you're a Facebook admin looking for blog and comments, please rethink this. This seems to be an example of human nature that just wants to change something for the sake of changing it.
If it ain't broke don't fix it. "Become a Fan" is a stronger statement of support for a page.
If this stay "like" this, I will probably stop promoting our page.
Too bad to kill a good thing.
D Jaco
Comment by danny Jaco — April 24, 2010 @ 7:39 am
This "like" is crap. I just finished setting up a business page on Facebook so that I could run contests for "Fans" and be able to have access to all fans who sign up. How will I now know who is a fan?
Comment by John Coulson — April 24, 2010 @ 9:31 am
The "Like" change is more in line with what it means to be "social." It communicates a softer message, yet retains all of the subtle nuances of what it means to be a "Fan." If someone is a "fan" of something, intuitively they "like" that thing. The "like" change signifies a better emotional connect between the liker and the thing being liked.
Comment by Rodger Johnson — April 25, 2010 @ 6:57 am
People will be confused at the beginning but they will get used to it eventually. The only constant in life is change.
Comment by Robert Somerville — April 26, 2010 @ 6:45 am
I hate this, it's terrible for musicians who are trying to build a fanbase.FAN is the term you use when you are into something long-term, not just a light/noncommital "like." People like claiming themselves as fans.
Comment by Jenny Gillespie — April 28, 2010 @ 7:51 am
I HATE GoLike.Us…..thinking about closing my page!! It is SOOOOOOOdamn annoying and FB doesn't allow you to delete them!! This used to be a good thing…now its crap!!
Comment by Disenchanted — October 13, 2010 @ 4:10 pm
i want to become fan not like
Comment by blanketjackson — November 22, 2010 @ 5:02 am
How do yoy see that someone became a fan (liked) of something. I just became a fan of one website and it didn´t show up on my wall.
Is there a special application for this sort of thing
Comment by Kristjan — November 29, 2010 @ 3:55 am
hi………………………………………………………………….. my name is felicia she have a new faceboo.com
Comment by felicia — January 31, 2011 @ 1:43 pm