Likester gives Facebook Like data extra clout
Lara O’Reilly is Marketing Week’s digital and telecoms specialist and here she gives her own view on what companies from Apple to Zynga are up to in the wired world of the web.
Facebook says more than 10,000 websites add the Like button every day so it can be understandably difficult to for marketers to sift through the raft of data it provides.
There are lots of tools, such as Facebook’s own search engine Booshaka, that provide brands with searchable trending topics from the site, but new startup Likester allows the biggest companies but also the individual end user to decipher more personalised Like data for free.
Last month Likester, the “popularity engine”, used data on Facebook Likes to name all the contestants in the bottom three of American Idol and predict that Stefano Langone was going home. The Like button is clearly more than just a clickable timewaster, it is a good measure of user intention.
There are some genius components of Likester, that brands would be wise to take a look at.
Likester displays trending topics by region, country, state or city; vital for location-based campaigns.
It’s really interesting to see how the country differs. Today in Leeds, “going out for a quiet one and coming home with no pants and a new cat” is trending today, while in Brighton “Channel 4 News” is the topic of choice.
Similar to Amazon, Likester also provides recommendations. If you look at the profile for Coca-Cola, you’ll see people that Like the brand also Like Oreo, Disney and Avril Lavigne. Marketers could use the data to form a Facebook cross-promotion, or check the stats to decide on the celebrity they will choose as their next brand ambassador.
Likester is by no means a one-size-fits-all Facebook data solution, but the scope of information it garners from the millions of clicks on the seemingly innocuous button goes some way to prove that the Facebook Like is a powerful currency in the online marketing economy.
