First To 100 Million Likes! So What?

Shakira, the exotic-dancing, bi-lingual singer, has made history this year when her Facebook page generated its 100 millionth “like” – about 8% of its 1.28 billion monthly active users globally.

The whole “likes” thing is stupid, but I’m impressed that someone figured out how to convince enough fans to “like” her to the point she is the first to such a huge benchmark.  Of course, “likes” don’t necessarily translate into sales.  In the five years it took her to go from 318,000 likes to 100,000,000, she did not sell anywhere near 100 million albums.  But, in a nice 23-year singing career in which she won two Grammys, eight Latin Grammys, and five MTV VMAs, she has sold 60 million albums and is worth $220 million.  But she was famous and successful way before the FB likes campaign.

I don’t like the “likes” campaign because it is not an indicator of anything other than good marketing.

She had a YouTube video viewed 236 million times and in one hour she earned 162,000 likes.  On Twitter she “only” has 26 million followers.  There should be more congruency of those numbers.

As of two years ago, the “most-liked” company was Coca-Cola with 47.6 million likes.  Hard to believe a company of that size and stature got half the likes of Shakira.  Disney only had 37.8 million likes – about a third of Shakira.  McDonald’s got a fifth of her – 21.7 million likes. 

Maybe these companies should hire her as a spokesperson.

Interestingly, less than two years ago, Shakira had 54.8 million likes – which put her 7 million behind Rihanna and 6.5 million behind Eminem.  Looks like she caught up.  A dead man, Michael Jackson, was ranked fifth with 51.9 million likes two years ago.

The only “likes” that matter are sales. 

If you like me, buy my book.  I don’t care what you think of me or if you follow me online or if you enjoy what I say or do.  The only consumer vote that counts is one made with a credit card.  That’s what most writers or musical artists must really think.

Likes are worthless.  Sites offer to sell “likes” for cheap.  For $480 one site offers 50,000 likes with “lifetime replacement” and a “money back guarantee.”  What bullshit.

Now, not saying Shakira or any of the stars participate in buying likes BUT, if one can buy a million likes for under 10,000 bucks, then one can get 100M likes for under a million dollars.  Then you get more than a million dollars worth of publicity, album sales, and concert tickets as a result of getting so many likes.  

I think some of these “likes” totals are inflated but even if they’re not, who really cares?!

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014