A User’s Complicated Relationship with Facebook

Mark Cuban wrote a very interesting blog post on what he calls “the future of the Facebook Like Button.” He proposes Facebook color code Like buttons to signal intent from the user… intent or action of buying (green), permission to send more updates to the user (yellow), or no action at all (red).

It’s an interesting idea which got me wondering about two things:

1. Can every user’s intent be captured through a color?

2. What about news updates?

Answering my own questions:

1. No, I don’t believe so. I know I personally go on Facebook Like button sprees, where I’ll click it on things I’ve bought, things I want to buy, things I don’t ever want to buy but I think are funny, things I may want to buy in the future, things that I’m just not sure about, news articles that I agree with, news articles I don’t agree with at all but enjoyed reading anyway, news articles that are just plain silly, and the list goes on. Though Facebook gives the option for publishers to let users add comments to whatever they “LIKE” (therefore, the ability to explain to people why they LIKED something), unfortunately, not all publishers/websites have implemented this. Could all the Like buttons I click on Facebook be categorized under 1 action? Not necessarily. Maybe I want more updates but I just don’t know it. Confused yet? Exactly.

2. What about news websites? For example, say I read a news story about an incident that happened on MTV’s Jersey Shore and I click “LIKE.” Should this signify I want more updates on Jersey Shore or does it mean I just “liked” the incident and want to share it with my friends? Should I click green to get more? More of what? Jersey Shore? Developments of the particular incident? More from that particular blogger or journalist? Also, as the media isn’t “selling” anything, per se, here is where the ability to publish back to a user is invaluable.

My Facebook Like button wishlist:

• CMS back-end for publishers, brands and media with the ability to categorize people into certain groups, to be determined by the publisher. Understanding the user’s intent here would be up to the publisher. (Example: Let the user know he or she should click “LIKE” if they want additional updates on products or developments on the particular news story or if they just want to share with their friends).
• Ability to seamlessly publish to those groups based on said groups. Note: Facebook has already announced the ability to publish back to the people who have clicked “LIKE”(through what they call “dark pages”), but they’ve yet to clearly explain HOW publishers can do this. As a side note, I’ve tried this on my own with no avail – ‘tis another post for another day.

So what’s all this mean? Who knows. Facebook is complicated and the interactions users have with their friends/network through Facebook are even more complicated. There’s a lot more that could be said about the future of the Facebook Like button.  I’m eager to see what they will build out; in my opinion, the Like button is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m also eager to see how universal it will be.