Do You Like Me? My Opinion On The Recent Facebook Changes

Facebook recently made two changes that dramatically impact the way users interact with Fan pages. The first and most obvious of the changes is the changing of the language from “Fan” to “Like” and the second is removing the ability for non-page admins to view the entire list of fans.

According to Facebook and as stated in the official Facebook FAQ the reason for the change from “Fan” to “Like” is:

To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we’ve changed the language for Pages from “Fan” to “Like.” We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.

- http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=17167

I believe the changes have very little to do with consistency and a light-weight standard way to connect and more to do with the fact users are more comfortable and generous with clicking “Like” vs clicking “Fan” so I believe it’s a way for Facebook to increase brand engagement as more users will become Fans with pages through the “Like” system vs the old “Fan” system. It is also known that Facebook is preparing to take on the Digg system of voting for a story off the site and will be rolling out a Facebook “Like” button that you can add to your website. So from what I see the new “Like” is simply a way for Facebook to monetize more users and promote their own future products and has almost nothing to do with the users.

What are your thoughts on the recent Facebook changes? Do you think the switch from “Fan” to “Like” is for the better? Let me know in the comments what your thoughts and opinions are on the Facebook Changes.