The power of 'Like'

Is the Facebook 'Like' button the most powerful tool on the web? Only introduced back in March and syndicated to other sites in April, Facebook had served a billion like buttons within 24 hours. Why is it so powerful? Because it has the ability to share your likes with your friends in your newsfeed and for you to add comments, and of course this has a huge implication for brands. It also creates a link between you and the consumer and your page will appear in the "Likes and Interests" section of the user's profile, and this gives you the ability to publish updates to the user. It also means that you can target advertising based on these 'Likes'.

I think the impact of 'Like' is just starting to be recognised. For example, Facebook advertising has very low click-through rates but they are now experimenting with two advertisers in the States putting the 'Like' button in ads. This means that the consumer doesn't have to leave the page but of course if they click on 'Like', it will go across in to their newsfeed and be shared and create a link with the advertiser. Interesting stuff.