I understand that Facebook, like most “free” services, has to incorporate ads into its platform in order to sustain itself, so when they came out with their sidebar ads, I begrudgingly complied. I don’t mind the ads because, bottom line, I don’t have to click them if I don’t want to. And when they started to allow people to “suggest” business pages to friends, I didn’t mind, because again, I don’t have to “like” it.

Some may argue that the same holds true for the individual invitations – “if you don’t like it, don’t ‘like’ it!” But I disagree – a personal invitation from a “friend,” even if just an acquaintance, is much more high-pressure than a simple “suggestion” hanging out on my sidebar, and I have the suspicion that I’m going to now have to “like” every local business page that is crammed into my notifications, if only for the fear of being the one friend who wasn’t supportive of their marketing efforts.

Not only do I find this new development personally annoying, I think it’s just one more step in Facebook’s road to total marketing overload. Once a place that relied on recommendations in a social marketplace, it’s becoming more and more like a crowded flea market, with everyone hawking their wares.

Unfortunately, I’ll probably still have to stick with Facebook for the time being, but I don’t have to “like” it. Besides, I heard somewhere that Google + is looking pretty good…

-Stephanie G.

Because people are more likely to trust a recommendation from a friend, it’s easy to see why the Facebook “like” button has become so popular: the more people who “like” your business, the better your exposure, the better your reputation!

But if it’s true that people are now turning to Facebook “likes” for their product recommendations, are they ignoring online reviews? From product reviews on Amazon to restaurant reviews on urbanspoon.com, to local reviews on Google Places, online reviews are everywhere. Chances are, that if you’ve run a Google search on a specific business or product recently, more than one review site popped up on that first page of results. And although personal recommendations are always preferred, recent statistics show that while 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know, 70% will also trust opinions of unknown users!

So, my question to the readers is this: Who are YOU more likely to trust? Facebook “likes” or online reviews?

-Stephanie G.