Facebook's 'Unlike Page' Button Raises Stakes on Relevancy

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After greasing the wheels for Facebook users to become "Fans" or "Likers" of a brand, the social site has made it easier for them to opt out with an "Unlike Page" button.

However the button (see image) hasn't exactly been positioned to jump out at the viewer. When "Likers" see a brand post in their newsfeed and choose to click on the "x" or "remove" button in the top right-hand corner of the message, they'll see the following options in a drop-down menu: "Hide this post"; "Hide all by [brand]"; "Unlike page"; and "Mark as spam."

If users choose "Unlike page," they'll see a message in their newsfeed that states, "Posts Now Removed...Posts from [brand] will no longer appear in your News Feed." The "Unlike" action has little viral capability, though, as it doesn't appear in the recent activity section on the user's Facebook wall.

The change makes Facebook wall posts behave a little bit more like e-mail, while raising the stakes on creating high-level message relevancy so audience members don't opt out. Before this development, users had to visit a brand page and scroll below the fold - just under the "People Like This" box - to tap an "Unlike" button. Or, they had to go into their "Likes and Interests" section to remove a brand from their profile.

Now, they can simply see one brand post that turns them off and leave the company's audience in a couple of clicks without leaving their personal wall.

Also of interest to marketers: the "Mark as spam" option seems to suggest that Facebook pages may soon have spam ratings on the social site in a similar fashion to how e-mail clients give senders deliverability scores. The Palo Alto, CA-based company didn't respond to e-mailed questions from ClickZ News early this afternoon.