What business problem does Like acquisition solve?

This is a question a brand planner friend of mine inadvertently asked during a recent discussion. It’s since struck me that there are a few issues it uncovers that are in some sense trivial but I think worth discussion. I think the major distinction between the normal application of strategic planning to solve business problems and the building of Facebook communities in an immediate sense is that the building of the community doesnt directly solve the same business problem. It is merely an asset that can be leveraged to solve the same business problem the communications strategy seeks to solve increasingly into the future. Its an obvious point but as an owned channel it is a pipeline through which the broader communications strategy can get to market as it is built and gains scale.

Potentially though there is a broader business problem that building Facebook communities achieves. Which is the need for brands to build their own communications channels populated by advocates, which can subsequently advocate to their friends, driving penetration, because consumers are increasingly hard to reach and are generally indifferent to advertising given the oversupply of un-engaging branded communications.

So in effect it doesn’t solve that same problem, but can be used to in the future. However it does solve a broader problem being the brands increasing inability to effectively reach consumers, which advocacy activation can assist in solving.