Like My Page, Please!

We have a problem.

No life endangered, no major economic threats. Nothing that will alter the course of history. Just something awkward.

See, back in the old days of 2009, you became a fan of pages on facebook. You set up a page for a business or an organization, and you could say “become a fan.”

Now, when you want to show your support for such a page, you click on a link that says you “like” this page.

In some ways this makes sense. You are showing your approval for a business or organization or other entity, giving it the old “thumbs up.”

It’s the language that gets clunky.

See, you need 25 people to “like” your page so you can get a “vanity” facebook address. Instead of a string of letters and numbers following the facebook url, you can then be www.facebook.com/ASNKidneyNews, for example (yes, we made the count yesterday). While trying to make that hurdle, I had a dilemma. What should we call these people? Fans? Gee, facebook went to all that trouble to change the process name… Should we really tweet that we only need one more fan? Perhaps they should be called “likers?” Although that sounds really, really weird. And, it is only 1 small typo away from lickers, which could get even weirder.

How do you recruit these people? Some say “follow us on twitter (@KidneyNews) and facebook (www.facebook.com/ASNKidneyNews), although my own preference is to use the verb “follow” specifically for twitter. Yes, saying “fan us on facebook” sounded wrong, but so does “like us on facebook.” Nothing is quite as good as “become a fan.”

And saying “we need one more person to like us on facebook to meet this goal” sounds pitiful. Won’t someone like me, please?

I have no wise Solomon-like solution. But I am feeling awkward. And I am open to suggestions.