A Brief History of the Facebook “Like” Button and its Effect on Marketing
Search
× Search

Sprocket Websites - Blog / News / Updates

A Brief History of the Facebook “Like” Button and its Effect on Marketing
Breanne Bannon
/ Categories: DIY Sprocket Solutions

If you find this helpful, pay it forward! More after the article...

A Brief History of the Facebook “Like” Button and its Effect on Marketing

They used to say a “dog year” was equal to seven human years. I suspect it’s the reverse for “social media marketing years” because of the bewildering speed of updates. How much do you recall about Facebook?

Technology changes all the time, so I regularly go back to my older blog posts to fix out-of-date information. The 2015 post about Facebook’s “Dislike” button, however, was way beyond the help of a little updating!

I was reporting on the rumor that Mark Zuckerberg had plans to release a thumbs-down version to go along with the thumbs-up “Like” button. Do you remember that? It never actually happened. Instead, after months of speculation, Zuckerberg’s team released an extension of the “Like” button called Facebook Reactions. They included the original Like, plus Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry.

The reasoning was obvious: With all the negativity on social media already, the option to “Dislike” posts was just a bad idea and everyone could easily see how that would spin out of control. In fact, my opinion on “Dislike” is the only bit of my 2015 blog post that is still relevant:

“On the one hand, expect criticism and a new avenue for negative feedback. On the other hand, use this as an opportunity for another channel of engagement on your posts.”

We have all been using Reactions for years now and are familiar with having a wider range of emotions to choose from when engaging with Facebook – and now, Meta – posts. It’s just so easy to engage with a click rather than taking time to write out a response, which is both good and bad for marketing.

Businesses and organizations would love to get more and better feedback on social media, but it’s kind of hard to have a conversation with an emoji response. That was the same argument back when Facebook first considered having a “Like” button. Did you remember that? I didn’t, but it’s true. For the first few years, Facebook didn’t have a “Like” button. It finally appeared in 2009 and marketing types worried it would kill off engagement.

The original button was called “Awesome” rather than “Like,” but instead of decreasing, studies showed that engagement actually increased after the button option went live. Such a brief interaction made engaging with a post painless and that data was easily recorded. When Facebook’s algorithm interpreted the data, it figured posts with a lot of engagement through “Likes” must be popular, so it showed those posts to more people more often. Who then “Liked” it, too.

What’s the upshot of all this history? Conversational engagement is down. But button-clicking engagement is up. Some follower opinions can be gleaned by noting which Reaction button they click. And posts with greater engagement get shown to more followers.

Unrelated studies suggest that organic social media marketing doesn’t have much of an impact on purchasing intent, but it does impact brand recognition and customer satisfaction. Regardless, then, of your paid social media goals, good organic marketing should have a place in your strategy. The team at Sprocket Websites provides both services, so when you’re ready to plan out a strategy of your own, give us a call!

Photo by ROCKETMANN TEAM:

This article is an update to “Facebook’s Dislike Button: Marketing Friend or Foe? dated 9/25/2015.

 

Did you enjoy this article? Was it helpful? Insightful?
Then please share it! Post it on your favorite Social Media platform(s) so your followers see it.
It's easy. Just click on any of the social icons below and we'll do the heavy lifting for you.
Oh yeah, leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for visiting!

Print
1860 Rate this article:
4.0
Breanne Bannon

Breanne BannonBreanne Bannon

Breanne is a Content Writer, Social Media Marketeer, and Sales Associate for Sprocket Websites.

Other posts by Breanne Bannon
Previous Article Is Your Business Website a Needle Hidden Under the Internet Haystack?
Next Article Poor Search Engine Results? Look at What You Have Compared to What You Need.

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Contact author

x

Stay In-The-Know...

Via QR Code

... With Every-Other-Week Tips!

Every other Tuesday, you'll receive the Sprocket Report completely free! Learn the latest business tip or news about what's currently happening in internet marketing. You get:

  • A web marketing tip from Kate
  • Another one from Breanne, and
  • Bonus! Tips curated from around the web

That's three valuable posts that you can read, plus a quick look at upcoming events and what's being discussed on Twitter. 

You'll want to get this info for yourself, in your own inbox. It's easy!

Type your email in the box above. OR scroll to the bottom of any page on this site. We have our subscription box there, too!

We NEVER give out your email address to anybody else and we don't flood you with ads. It's just good, free information. 

About Us

We turn surfers into visitors and visitors into customers.

We'll make you a beautiful, interactive website. Then we'll help drive traffic to it.

Read Archived Articles

Search

GET SOCIAL

LEARN MORE

Get The Sprocket Report

 

Terms Of UsePrivacy StatementCopyright © 2024 by Sprocket Websites, Inc.
Back To Top