Our very own Becki Dilworth has been busy traveling the country with the Content Rules Tour and word is that she’s been asked quite a few times about the difference between Facebook Like, Share and Fan. Well, since she’s busy rubbing shoulders with Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, I thought I’d help her out and try to explain the difference between these Facebook items.

One of my favorite websites is Awkward Family Photos, and today as I was cruising through their site, I found this cute baby picture that I wanted to share with my friends on Facebook. At the top of the page is the traditional ‘Like’ button, which I push and become #780 of the people that ‘Like’ this photo. Afterwards, I headed over to my Facebook page to see what this looks like on my profile…

Nice, it’s shared with my friends, but it really isn’t showing my friends much. It’s simply a link, but it doesn’t scream, “click on me” and you really don’t get the true feeling that this photo emanates. Seriously, do you want to click on “Baby Black and White?” It kinda sounds creepy.

However, there’s another option on this page (toward the bottom), and it allows me to ‘Share’ this photo on my Facebook page. This time, I’m taken to a page where I can fill in text to go with the picture and choose if I want to show this picture to my friends. On my profile, it looks like this…

Now, if you’re my friend on Facebook, you get a set of options to share it on your post like I just did, comment on it (in my profile), or ‘Like’ the photo. When you ‘Like’ it, it will show on my profile, and create a link on your profile as well.

Becoming a fan of a page is so 2010

No, seriously, in early 2010, Facebook got rid of the option to ‘Become a Fan’ of a page and replaced it with the ‘Like’ button.

If you want to become a fan of a Facebook page, you have to actually go to that page and hit ‘Like’. When you do, this information will be shared on your profile, just like it was when I hit the ‘Like’ button above; however, this time, I am now a fan of this page, or I ‘Like’ this page.

So, to break it down…

• The ‘Like’ button has replaced the ‘Become a Fan’ button and pretty much dominates as the universal button for Facebook.
• The ‘Share’ button does the same thing as ‘Like’ does, but allows you to share content and a photo from what you’re sharing.

Now, how many times did I just mention the word ‘Like’?