The other day I was experimenting with the Facebook Like button. By now you’ve probably interacted with that little like button popping up on sites like this – see it up there at the top of the post. Most content publishers have adopted this little sharing mechanism to take advantage of the growing popularity that is Facebook. (I wrote about how to install this button here)

As adoption has grown so have the options for how you can display the button. There are options for fonts, color schemes, layout, show faces or not and the verb you want to display – current choices include “Like” and “Recommend.”

I innocently posed a question on Twitter regarding this verb choices and was surprised by level of opinion expressed. I asked which was better, Like or Recommend. I guess I was thinking purely of the get clicks and views objective of spreading your content on Facebook, but the responses told me we clearly weren’t talking just about Facebook.

The overriding theme the conversation took on was that it was easy to Like something or someone, but an entirely higher level of commitment was needed to Recommend. A Like is a fleeting act that, while shared with your friends, signaled nothing very deep. A Recommend on the other hand suggested that I like this and I think you should like this too and that required more care.

So, while Likes get more clicks, Recommends get more thought and are perhaps more valuable or are at least meaningful in the long term.

From a testing standpoint this presents an interesting psychological quandary, but what I really want to know is this – How do you get someone to move from like to love? (Feel free to substitute with from respect to refer)

• People like companies that make good stuff, they love companies that make simple stuff
• People like companies that provide good service, they love companies that have remarkable people
• People like companies that communicate well, they love companies that live a powerful story
• People like companies that are innovative, they love companies that inspire them
• People like companies that are different, they love companies that surprise them and make them laugh
• People like companies that educate, they love companies that take them on epic journeys

So, I guess I’m saying that if we are to build a company that is to deliver a truly rewarding experience to the owners, staff, customers, partners and community – like isn’t enough.