Is the Like Button yet another fad, without real meaning for messaging and marketing? Maybe.
On MASHABLE, Jordan Kretchner reminds us that the number of Likes our content receives often has little to do with engagement. And, isn't the objective of reaching out on the web to create the kind of pull force which will lead our visitors to action, such as contacting us for more information about our product or service, recommending us to their network, volunteering for our cause, donating money, and helping obtain more exposure for our point of view.
Sure, as Hedrick Smith hammered in his book "The Power Game," likability is power. But, it's not enough as a stand-alone to get anything done. Being liked was key in high school. Yet looking back to those days, the most well-liked didn't get far, did they. Those abilities which went into popularity were either not easily transferable to the world beyond high school or, as a noted, are hardly adequate for making things happen. The low-profile, oddballs, and worker bees tended to leave their mark in business, politics, and the arts. A chubby misfit then and now, I managed to do better professionally than any at Snyder High, Jersey City, New Jersey would have expected.
Even before Kretchner's article, I had been considering what a nuisance those likes have been in my professional life. For one thing, not one brought in business. For another, implicitly they require some kind of response to the liker. And, third, the digitally naive pester us with tales of all the likes they have received and ask my score.
Reality is that we don't need much to succeed. If I have X number of assignments I am earning plenty and learning from them. Employees just need 1 job. Even politicos only need the support, including money, of X number of people. After high school, winning isn't a popularity contest.
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