It Is Expedient To Buy Likes For Business Reasons
Saturday July 28, 2012 1:35am

It is possible to buy likes in the Facebook context. This may sound surprising, but the word 'like' is a very flexible symbol. It is commonly used as verb or adjective but can also functions as other parts of speech. Some people even use it as nothing more than a speech mannerism, as in the phrase, 'Like I said'.

The term, 'Facebook' is apparently not original but simply a colloquialism for a booklet which is given to students when they entered an institution to help them know their peers. This good idea was probably thought up by an obscure education administrator. In 2004 a group of students thought of developing the idea online. Other students thought of similar ideas but it was the Facebook one that seemed to catch on.

The idea of the online Facebook exploded onto the world and became an international phenomenon. In 2012 it became a company floated on stock exchanges, making its founders fabulously wealthy. Similar groups founded at other universities did not enjoy the same success. This demonstrates the role of good fortune in some such initiatives but also the versatility of the site

Privacy has become a thorny issue in the twenty-first century. It is not what it was. After certain invasions of privacy in Britain a judicial commission has been set up to investigate how private cell phones are tapped by journalists. Apparently the police are already old hands at this but justify what they do by claiming it to be in the interests of justice. Privacy on Facebook is also an issue because less competent users can find an image of themselves disseminated around the Globe.

To its credit Facebook has responded to the consternation of some potential users by introducing features which enable users to either limit the exposure of their inputs or fling them to the winds. The word 'like' is widely used and flexible. It has been drawn into new use as a noun meaning people who may share information published and give feedback on it. A special button on the site enable this and many people seem to value themselves in term of how many likes they have, just as people have always tended to be pleased with their own popularity. Unsurprisingly a beautiful blond star tennis player will have many likes, and her sponsors will be pleased with that.

Such ingenious features encourage and retain users. In 2012 the site was estimated to have nine hundred million active users. As smart phones become more widely available many users actually carry access to their Facebook accounts around with them in their pockets. They can fiddle with them as they sit in universities or classrooms. Since it is mostly young people who connect with each other in this way the implications for conventional education are astonishing.

With the advent of smart phones young users are now able to inform their friends exactly where they are and why. It is thought that this is having a huge effect on education, on crime and on politics. With a large number of links on his smart phone one individual can move his followers around a city as a general might do on a battlefield.

For commercial purposes it may be necessary to buy likes on Facebook because the process of building up a network for business purposes can be too painfully slow for practical purposes. People have Facebook pages because they wish to disseminate messages about themselves or the products that they wish to sell. The more likes that they have the wider will be their following and the more effective their presence on this social networking site.