Facebook is set to alter its ever-present “like” button. This follows its own research suggested users favored the thumbs up logo as opposed to the stylized letter “f” logo.
The Facebook “like” button is found on most media websites, allowing people to “like” different news items and as a way of sharing articles. The button, in its current form, features on popular news sites like Digital Journal, as can be seen in the image below:
From the Facebook survey, the company thinks it can increase engagement further with a new design. The new design removes the “f” letter and replaces it simply with the “thumbs up” symbol. The old and new image can be seen in the following picture:
Here Facebook states: “Our hypothesis was that more people would understand the thumbs up icon on the Like button, so we conducted qualitative and quantitative tests to measure them side-by-side. The results revealed an increase in engagement, so we are switching the Like button from the Facebook “f” logo to the thumbs up icon.”
In response, marketing agency Elevate My Brand (@elevatemybrand) tweeted: “The New Facebook Like Button Promises 6% More Engagements.” Surprised social media user Louise (@Loulou_Uberkirk) messaged “Who would have thought a simple re-design would do this?”, and another social media user, gregsson (@mygreg) similarly tweeted: “This is revolution – the new Facebook Like Button.”
As well as changing the appearance of the “like” button, Facebook has also announced it is to release new tools to allow developers build-in social interaction onto their sites. This includes, the BBC reports, updating the follow and share icons. Much of this will be orientated towards mobile devices since the growing trend for social media interaction is via smartphones and tablets. The Facebook report indicates that some one in three Facebook likes derives from a mobile device.
