Facebook Changes ... Again. Dislike!

Facebook have recently changed the 'become a fan' option on facebook to 'like', reducing pages to mere items of content with no real interactive intention from the 'liker'. As a small business Facebook user I'm a little miffed at some of the changes ... or as some might say, DISLIKE.

- What's a fan worth now?
Previously a 'fan' was a significant asset as each person cared enough about your product to proudly become a 'fan', a word which indicates someone who is fanatical (or at least interested) in the subject of the page. The same is true for 'groups' which users 'join' ... a commitment is required by the user therefore making them a more qualified 'lead'. A study conducted recently valued a 'fan' at $3.70 ... although this number is only for pages of 1,000,000+ 'fans'. What would be the value of a 'liker' as opposed to a 'fan'?

- What's a page worth now?
If a pages interactive properties are now devalued to the exact same status as any single piece of content (status update, photo post, gallery post, movie etc) then a page really doesn't have much value at all. Crowds will come and go like the tide, washing in on a whim and leaving just as quickly. Perhaps this will increase the volume of visitors to some pages but it will remove the value to the small, intimate, local business which have less than 500 fans. Many small businesses are happy to maintain small databases of valuable fans, utilizing it as a social customer relationship management tool. The 'likers' may no longer be potential customers, just window shoppers passing by enmass.

- A 'like' is lazy
A Facebook user clicks the 'like' button as a lazy way to get out of interacting with a piece of content further, therefore it is seen by many users as a non-committal nod and thumbs up as opposed to an in-depth interaction. This can be seen to mean that the 'become a fan' and the 'like' buttons are almost opposites - committed promoters and nonchalant, non-committed neutrals.

- I have 5000 likers
Will we easily accept the difference in terminology, or will this confuse new users to the site as older users hang on to phrases like 'I have 5000 fans'? Can you imagine a printed advertisement with the line 'Visit Facebook to like our page' or 'like us on Facebook'? Are we really that easily retrained that a service can happily change the meaning of its own branded terms after 4 years, at the peak of their market saturation, without fear of the masses leaving? It appears that only a week in it is catching on with some heavy users of pages, but not with the ungeeks.

- Tricked likers leave
Building on the value of a 'fan' vs a 'liker', we can imagine that there will be cases where individuals 'like' a page then become annoyed when they are receiving updates in their feed. Worse than a constant fluctuating 'liker' base (not the same as fan base, is it?), is an angry 'liker' who didn't really want to commit to the depth of interaction when you 'like' a page, as opposed to when you 'like' any other individual piece of content. It is already a complaint of users that they receive a notification when someone comments on something they 'liked' because ... well ... they don't really care that much, or they would have commented or interacted further! See, not so simple this human stuff, is it?

- Will it matter?
As with every other Facebook update, we have bitched and moaned but the service continues to grow. We not only become attached to the new ideas very quickly, but we seem to accept anything the service does to us provided it lets us connect with our friends. What will be the dramatic change, as we know there often is, that will finally turn that snowball into an avalanche of departing users?

Are we going to see fragmentation in social media sooner rather than later?

I hope so, I love mass corporate change! It's like a game of pick-up-sticks ;-)