The Power of Like

Martin Reeves is the chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute.

Bob Goodson is the president and founder of Quid.

The like button is pivotal to the $220 billion social media industry and the digital transformation of marketing and advertising.

Yelp tried to generate response by asking people to generate reviews by emailing friends.

By 2004, it wasn’t a completely novel concept that sites would serve as platforms for ordinary folks to post their own content.

Making someone’s own content findable was a revolutionary concept from Kevin and the Yelp team.

In May 2005, Yelp offered three buttons—useful, funny and cool.

In Silicon Valley, there are frequent meet ups where people show off their work, compare techniques and trade ideas.

The common notion that Facebook invented the Like button is both mistaken and quite understandable.

Initially Mark Zuckerberg didn’t approve the Like button since he thought it added no value.

Friend feed was the original Like button, which was acquired by Facebook.

A Like button is a one click comment and is attached to a person. The simplicity works.

Bret Taylor, a 1000 x engineer, built the Like button.

It was Ana Muller who coined it “like”. All the men wanted to call it a love button and she opposed it.

When Facebook added the Like button, it spread like wildfire.

The Like button became obligatory. YouTube added it in 2010. LinkedIn added it in 2012. Instagram adopted the Like button in 2016.

From 2016, Facebook expanded the range of emotional options. LinkedIn followed suit in 2019.

As we write this, we hear X is testing a dislike button.

Today, we see 160 billion Like clicks per day, i.e. 20 Like clicks for every human being on earth.

Two decades into its useful life, the Like button is still being invented.

In 1997, when Andrew Weinrich launched the world’s first social networking site ‘Six Degrees’, it didn’t occur to him to have a Like button.

The Like button’s history tells us to embrace an unruly process to innovation.

Innovation needs to be an experimentative, feedback and iterative process.

The speed at which eBay, Twitter, etc. caught on has led people to believe that tech innovation is an instantaneous process.

For pilots, a thumbs up is a necessity and is a sign of preparedness.

Throughout the Cold War, the thumbs up served as a worldwide symbol of US competence and confidence.

We like to like because it gives us a little frisson of anticipation and satisfaction. It gives us that shot of dopamine.

The timing of your activity digitally can say a lot about the rhythm of your life.

The primary goal of all sites is to keep you engaged.

All sites try to maximize for retention and time spent.

All research shows that more positive posts get more sharing but negative stuff gets faster sharing.

Consumer feedback improves operations.

For content creators who want to be influencers, Likes are their stock in trade.

Four factors vary for the influencer and the creative brief

• cost of content production
• usage rights
• exclusivity
• distribution

Consumers see influencers as relatable compared to celebrities.

TikTok debuted in 2016 with another name, the combination with musical.Ly made it TikTok in 2018.

The common theme of value creation is the value of measurable feedback.