The Facebook “Like” Button
Hello all, my name is Freddie (a.k.a Flower Funster on the blog).I joined Arena around the February Valentine’s period and as you can imagine it was a VERY busy first few days. I came to Arena off the back of studying Environmental Business at Leeds, and was looking forward to trying something new and challenging in the world of online marketing. It was all quite bewildering at first with so many acronyms being thrown around by everyone in the office, but I am beginning to get an understanding of the enormous worlds of Google Adwords, SEO (search engine optimisation) and general internet marketing and site housekeeping. There seems to be a never-ending stream of information and techniques to learn about and trial.
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What has amazed me from when I first arrived is the pace at which things change and evolve, even in the short time I’ve been here. One of the things that has been beeping louder and louder on the marketing radar is Facebook. On a personal level I am used to using Facebook to chat to my friends, share photos and organise pub trips. However, I – along with many others – have become interested in exploring its potential usage and capabilities in e-commerce (beyond simple banner advertising). I can see how it can start to affect consumers’ decisions. What could be a greater source of influence than friends and their recommendations?
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I heard that way back in 2007 Arena launched its own Facebook app, Flowers & Fun, which became really popular. The idea was to send flowers to your friends for any occasion using Facebook. It was even possible to send them anonymously as a secret admirer. Overall, 28,000 people added the app to their Facebook profiles, and sent 65,000 bouquets. This created a huge amount of brand awareness at a time when Arena Flowers was relatively new but the app didn’t necessarily have much direct effect on a consumer’s decision making and our sales.
The FaceBook “Like” button appears to be tapping directly into the power of recommendation. Facebook are integrating themselves with external websites via the “Like” button. Previously the “Like” button was only embedded within Facebook. Some people have been looking at the possibilities of what this simple little button could well be capable of. One friend of Arena, Nigel Whiteoak has posted some interesting thoughts about the “Like” button and what Facebook may have planned going forward; such as more search functionality (for example, where the “Liked” pages show in Facebook search results).
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ArenaFlowers.com, always keen early-adopter, has rolled out the like button across all our products, see here: Bright & Cheery (we put the “Like” button up 24 hours ago), and you will even be able to “Like” this blog post ;). Luckily for us we sell an interesting product, if we sold duct tape online then this might not be so exciting. Flowers are a fun and beautiful gift for so many different occasions making it hard not to “Like” them.
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I think the “Like” button has the potential to be huge. One of the main reasons for this; Facebook has hit 500 million users, which is staggering and cannot be ignored for any online business. The “Like” button could also be a very accessible way of tapping into those users and finding out what they actually like and want. I think the introduction of the “Like” button has also started to create a shift of authority. Previously the power was purely in the hands of the website, or the first results in Google. Now people can essentially vote for what products they like with a simple click of a button – and show this to all their friends. External reviews and star ratings are definitely still prominent but are by no means the only influence on a potential customer.
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People trust their friends’ tastes and preferences, when a friend “Likes” a product it appears in your news feed, in their user profiles and perhaps if Facebook bring out a search functionality, there too. Facebook creates a sphere of trust between you and your friends; you share photos, news and all the rest. The “Like” button could extend that trust to products and businesses. Potentially for people that are still wary about shopping online, or on sites they’ve never tried before, with categorical recommendation from a trusted friend about a product or website, I think this may greatly influence someone’s buying in the future.
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Filed under: General, Marketing, Matters Webby on July 7th, 2010
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