Another Study has questioned the value of Facebook likes. According to Dr. Tina McCorkindale, a professor from Appalachian State University, likes mean almost nothing for almost no one. The study she conducted found 75% of those between 18-29, which are the core group of Facebook users never go back to a facebook page that they “like.”
In public relations, one of the basics of what we do is build relationships to hopefully get individuals to engage in some sort of behavior. It’s clear that the 18- to 29-year-olds are not as invested in an organization as the organization may think they are when they click the ‘like’ button or click ‘follow.’ It’s fairly consistent in the research that Millennials like organizations that give something back to them.
This is pretty interesting, especially since a recent study in February said that 99% of Facebook fans are useless. Facebook is trying to convince more and more people that the real value of people is getting them to like brands or become fans, instead of driving people off of Facebook. The idea is that Facebook’s real value to advertisers has something to do with Facebook not driving sales or visitors to other websites – which is the core value of Google Adwords.
What does this mean? Well, marketers all know that you need to drive visitors off of Facebook to landing pages. If anyone ever proves that Facebook pages and “time” on Facebook is worth a lot less, then there is a huge problem with Facebook’s value. Maybe they are a $1 Trillion Company? Maybe they are just a fad?
