Facebook has become an integral platform for people to connect and express their interests. With over 2.91 billion monthly active users, there is a vast amount of information shared on Facebook daily in the form of posts, likes, comments, and more.
As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you may be curious to learn more about what your customers or prospects like on Facebook. Gaining insights into their interests can help you better understand your target audience and market more effectively.
This guide will provide tips and best practices for ethically viewing what someone has liked on Facebook, while respecting their privacy.
Step-by-Step Guide to Viewing Facebook Likes
Here are some step-by-step methods you can use to see what someone likes on Facebook:
Check Their Public Activity
The easiest way to get a sense of someone‘s interests is to look at the public activity on their profile page:
- Go to their Facebook profile page.
- Scroll through their recent posts and activity. Take note of any pages liked, groups joined, or things commented on or shared.
This will give you a snapshot of things they have liked publicly on Facebook recently. However, it‘s limited to activity they‘ve made visible to friends only.
View Their "Likes" Section
Every user has a section called "Likes" on their profile that aggregates many of the things they‘ve liked:
- Go to their profile and click on "About."
- Scroll down and click on "Likes."
- Browse through the list of their page and interest likes.
This showcase covers most of their public page and interest likes. However, they may have set certain likes to private, so this still won‘t provide a comprehensive view.
Search Mutual Friends‘ Likes
Since people often share interests with their friends, looking at mutual friends‘ likes can provide clues:
- Go through the profiles of your mutual friends with this person.
- Make note of any common pages, artists, or interests they‘ve liked.
- Cross-reference with the person‘s profile to see if they also like those things.
This can reveal shared interests even if the person has stricter privacy settings on their own profile.
Use Third-Party Tools Ethically
External tools like Social Searcher, LikeAnalyzer, and Friend Insight claim to show more of a person‘s likes by connecting to Facebook data. The legitimacy of these tools varies, so use discretion. Never access private data without the person‘s consent.
Pros and Cons of Methods for Viewing Likes
Each approach for seeing someone‘s Facebook likes has advantages and limitations:
| Method | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Public Activity | – Easy to access – Provides snapshot of recent likes |
– Limited to public activity only – Doesn‘t show full range of interests |
| Likes Section | – Aggregates many page/interest likes – Available on every profile |
– Doesn‘t include all likes, especially "private" ones |
| Mutual Friends | – Reveals common interests – Works around stricter privacy settings |
– Time consuming to cross-reference – Friends may not fully align |
| Third-Party Tools | – Provides more comprehensive view | – Varies in legitimacy – Raises ethical concerns |
As you can see, no single method will uncover a complete picture of someone‘s full range of likes and interests on Facebook. Combining approaches gives a broader perspective, but there will always be limitations.
How to Use What You Find Ethically
The most ethical application of these techniques is to better understand your prospects‘ or customers‘ interests so you can provide value to them. Some best practices include:
- Starting meaningful conversations: If you discover shared interests, bring them up respectfully to establish a real connection.
- Creating relevant content: Develop social media posts, ads, or other content likely to resonate based on their likes.
- Identifying new marketing opportunities: Find potential partnership or affiliate opportunities related to their interests.
- Segmenting your audience: Group customers into market segments by similar likes and interests.
- Market research: Analyze likes demographically for consumer insights. What are millenials or suburban moms liking?
It‘s unethical to make assumptions or judgements about someone based on their likes, contact them excessively, or market in a manipulative way. Always get their consent first before using the insights for business purposes.
Facebook Privacy Settings and Hidden Likes
Facebook‘s privacy settings allow users control over what activity is visible to the public or just friends. This means certain likes can remain hidden from view.
Some key privacy settings that can obscure likes include:
- Activity log visibility: Controls who sees your activity log and like history.
- Limit past public posts visibility: Limits public visibility of past posts, limiting surfaceable likes.
- Limit friend list visibility: Controls who can see your friends list and mutual friends.
- Download your Information: Shows you additional likes not visible on your profile.
As you can see, Facebook provides robust privacy controls to allow hiding likes and activity. Respect users‘ settings and avoid attempting to uncover hidden likes without consent.
Statistics on Facebook Liking Behavior
Some interesting statistics about how people interact with likes on Facebook:
- 70% of US adults use Facebook regularly, providing a large data set. [Source]
- There are over 140 million active Pages representing brands, artists, interests that users can like. [Source]
- 65% of people say common interests are an important factor in sustaining relationships. [Source]
- 40% of users claim Facebook likes represent their real personality. [Source]
The pervasiveness of likes across demographics and friend groups demonstrates their power for understanding people‘s interests and preferences at scale.
Unique Perspective as a Small Business Consultant
As a consultant who advises small business owners and entrepreneurs on marketing tactics and strategy, I have extensive experience leveraging social media analytics ethically.
Many of my clients ask how they can better understand their prospective customers on Facebook without compromising privacy. My advice is to take a layered approach:
- Start by gathering the publicly available data through likes, groups, public activity, etc. Look for any common themes and interests.
- Expand insights by looking at aggregated page and industry research. For example, what pages are similar users liking? What interests are common among the target group?
- Reinforce assumptions through broader market research. Conduct focus groups or surveys around interests and preferences.
- Finally, gain consent from a subset of prospects to incorporate their personal insights. Offer an incentive in exchange for opting in to share.
This allows small businesses to gain valuable customer insights for better engaging and serving their niche without resorting to unethical data practices.
Final Tips for Viewing Someone‘s Likes on Facebook
Here are some final best practices to keep in mind:
- Only use public data or information the person has given consent for you to access. Avoid assumptions.
- Be transparent about your intentions and ask permission if needed.
- Apply insights ethically to establish authentic connections, not manipulate or spam.
- Combine approaches for a more complete picture but accept limitations.
- Respect privacy settings and hidden likes. Do not try to uncover these.
- Stay up-to-date with Facebook policies around data usage and privacy.
Understanding someone‘s likes on Facebook can foster more meaningful connections and mutually beneficial opportunities. But ultimately, ethics and respect should be the top priority.
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