Posted by & filed under Facebook, Social Media Blog.

Facebook recently made a big change which may actually fly under the radar of most users.

The old “Facebook Share” button has now become the “Like” button.

Facebook Share = Like

Big deal right? The average facebook user may not even know the difference, but that is exactly why this change is so powerful. Here are the details…

Most facebook users tend to be more liberal with their “Likes” than their “Shares.”

Why?

Well in the past, when you simply “Like” a website or blog post, a tiny snippet will show up on your friends’ news feed like this “Adam Viccaro just liked About BluRose Media on www.simplelogicstudio.com” Most users didn’t even notice that this was happening because it never showed up on their own news feed, nor did it show up in great detail on their profile (usually just the above quoted text, but rarely at the top of their profile). Less intrusive basically means users are more liberal with their “Like” button clicking.

Similar to this…

Old Like Button

On the other hand, when users clicked the “Facebook Share” button on a website or blog post, two things happened. They were asked to share the post with an image and excerpt, and if they felt the need, they could comment on the post as well. The post or page would then show up on their news feed as well as at the top of their profile. Much more intrusive, and people tend to only share things that they REALLY liked because of this fact.

Old Share Button

This is why you typically go to a website and see that ~100 people like a post, yet it was only shared ~20 times.

Well, the game has changed, and the “Like” button just inherited all aspects of the old “Facebook Share.”

New Like Button

What does that mean for you as a business owner?

It means you need to take full advantage of that fact by making sure you have the “Like” button on all of your content. Most users will not realize the change that has taken place, so they will still be very liberal with their “Likes,” and you need to allow them to share your content as much as possible.

If you have a WordPress blog, make sure you are using the following social plugins:

You can customize each of these plugins to allow visitors to share your content on virtually every social network/bookmarking site available.

Hint: Don’t just choose the networks/bookmarking sites YOU use. Find a core group of bookmarking sites that fit well with your niche, and add those in. Just because you don’t use those other sites (you should!), you may have a visitor who is well networked on a different site, and you want to allow them to share your content on that other bookmarking site.

Take a look at some of our client sites for examples, or contact us for a consultation!

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