An army of likable objects: The new Facebook marketing strategy

Since the fan Page was introduced in 2007, marketers on Facebook have been clamoring for fans. Campaigns to drive fan acquisition have ranged from contests to virtual gifts, all in the name of gathering an audience to support future marketing efforts.

StepChange, a leading developer of Facebook campaigns, says that once the brands they work have a good fan base, they shift to fan activation campaigns where the name of the game is to get audience participation. A few leading brands were graduating beyond activation into programs designed to monetized their most active fans. Then, Facebook deprecated fans and renamed them likers, which changed everything.