Facebook is slowly rolling out a new change that will have users choosing to “like” a Fan Page rather than “Become a Fan”. As it is similar practice for users to “like” content from friends’ profiles to show approval, this act could be rather confusing for users. Facebook’s reason for this change seems to be that users tend to click the “Like” button almost twice as much as the “Become a Fan” button.
Brands will welcome this change as it can lead to more fans, even if it is inadvertently. Though Facebook should tread lightly with similar updates confusing users. If they continue to make changes favoring brands over their users there could be backlash coming down the road.
This is very sneaky, “liking” something is inherently different from becoming a fan, because becoming a fan opens the user up to direct communication from a brand.