What Advertisers Find Out About You When You Click 'Like' On Facebook
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Facebook knows a lot about each of its users, of course, but it offers you options to make your account as private as possible. But that doesn't stop advertisers from drawing data from the social network, and using it to target you with ads.
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Last week, a new company, Likester, launched "Likester AdCenter," a tool that analyzes the vast trove of data that Facebook generates from people hitting the "Like" button—750 million likes and counting. Here's how founder Kevin McCarthy says it works:
You can put any company into the Likester search engine, and learn a tremendous amount about that company’s fans, including what books they read, TV shows they watch, movies they watch, and other companies that they like, and so on.
We gave McCarthy a sample list of interesting companies—Walmart, Lululemon, Starbucks, etc.—and asked him to show us what the Likester database reveals about you when you "like" any of those brands.
The results are both surprising and depressing. Who knew that Stride Gum and Lynyrd Skynyrd were so popular among shoppers? On the other hand, all the stereotypes about fans of Harley Davidson and Pabst Blue Ribbon seem to be true—they like Larry the Cable Guy and The Melvins, respectively.
And you won't believe the ugly truth about Yankees and Red Sox fans ...
If you like Walmart, you might also like black actors, country singers and Megan Fox.
Walmart has 16,438,404 likes, more than most brands. It's not too surprising that people who like Walmart are 91 times more likely to also like Febreze and 87 times more likely also like Lysol.
Oddly, they're also 6.5 times more likely than average to also like Megan Fox. Black actors and country and western singers also index more highly with Walmart likers than other entertainers.
Here's a selection of brands Walmart's fans are more likely to favor. The numbers represent how many times more likely it is that a Walmart liker has also hit "Like" for the named brand:
- Stride Gum 71
- The Hollywood Gossip 69
- JustMySize (a plus-size clothing brand) 67
- Trace Adkins 38
- Reba McEntire 37
- Bernie Mac 35
- Bret Michaels 33.4
- Jada Pinkett Smith 29
- Sanaa Lathan 23
- Taraji Henson 23
- Ashton Kutcher 11
- Will Smith 10.5
But ... Walmart likers are only 6.5 times more likely than average to also like Megan Fox.
If you like Lululemon, you might also like The New York Post, puppies and these obscure twin models.
Lululemon has 623,297 likes on Facebook. Fans of the cult-like yoga brand are very specific about their likes—most of their cross-referenced likes went to other yoga and fitness brands. Here are the more quirky brands on their radar:
- Kristi Blicharski ~ Creating Your Bliss 667 (Blicharski is a "happiness coach").
- The Daily Muse 659 times (a career advice site).
- Michelle Underground 629 (a yoga celebrity).
- Eileen Fisher 616
- Page Six 616 (The New York Post's gossip page)
- Can this puppy get more fans that Justin Bieber? 599
- Tom And Gary's Decentralized Dance Party 575
- Alyssa Reid 539 times (singer)
- Talley Twins 575 (models)
If you like Starbucks, you might also like Barbie, Wet Seal and Hello Kitty.
Starbucks, which has 30,443,461 likes, is pretty much for girls, according to Likester's data:
- Tubing 18
- Barbie 17
- Wet Seal 15
- Batman 15
- Trident Chewing Gum 15
- Hot Topic 14
- Dairy Queen 13
- Juicy Couture 13
- Hello Kitty 12
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