Facebook Likes

Until last year I didn’t use Facebook much, but shortly after my book, Charles Middleworth was released, I set up an Author Page and begun exploring with enthusiasm, this, the behemoth of Social Media platforms (901m users approx).  I realised that I Liked Facebook.  In fact as I was soon to discover Facebook is all about Liking.  One can Like everything from pages to posts, pictures and comments.  All you have to do is click Like and I duly did.  I Liked author pages, product pages and lots of pictures, including plenty of cats, dogs and people at parties.

In no time at all I was clicking Like repetitively time and time again.  I Like this picture of a cat and that one and that one too and yes I Like that author page and that one, that one and that product page and that product page too and that picture of a tractor.  But not you, I don’t Like you, I don’t know why I just don’t.  So I bypass that one and I’m Liking again, incessantly now, Liking multiple pages, pictures and posts.  On one page I see a comment that says ‘Phone me tomorrow Emma’.  I don’t know Emma or who sent it but I click Like anyway.  But then I asked myself if that is something you can even Like.  However I had no time to dwell on this because I was back Liking again.  Product pages, fan pages, pictures, remarks and the list goes on.  But then I came across a Facebook profile page with a photograph across the top of a line of pooches dressed in uniforms, with the owner’s beaming face in the middle and this I don’t Like, so I look for the Dislike button.  But there is no Dislike button anywhere on the page and there is no Dislike button on any other Facebook page either.  So I go onto Google and search for ‘Facebook + Dislike button’, only to discover that there is no Dislike feature.  And I find myself asking what is the value of a world without comparison and what does Like even mean in the absence of Dislike.  Not much one might argue.

Research on the subject certainly suggests this.  Performerinsider.com claims 99% of Facebook fans are useless.  Yet companies marketing departments continue to court Likes.  The world’s largest brands have many Likes.  When I visited Coca Cola’s Facebook page I saw they had 64,357,439 Likes.  Make that 64,357,440 Likes.  I Like Coca Cola, I really do.  So much so that I drink it regularly.  McDonald’s had 28,451,803 Likes and I Liked it too, but only because there was no Quite Like button.  Next up was Oreos, who had 33,234,940 Likes and I clicked Like again, though I’ve only had an Oreo once and can’t remember what it tasted Like.  But we all Like cookies don’t we and 33,234,940 people can’t be wrong.

Whatever the value of a Like the fact remains that if we take the trouble to build a nice looking Facebook page that we want people to visit, it is going to look better with a lot of Likes than with hardly any or worse still none.  So we too court Likes and the circle goes one.  My Facebook Fan Page is Charles Middleworth.  Feel free to Like it and I will probably reciprocate, although there may be rare instances when I cannot bring myself to press the Like button.

If you’re an author on Facebook and want more Likes you might be interested in the Facebook Like Literary Cafe.

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control?  How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil?  Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight.  If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’  – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com