The Sanctity of the Page Like and Reciprical Page Like Purity

Over at ChicagoNow, we periodically have these Lovefests where our Fearless Leader asks everyone to post their blog's url or Facebook page or twitter account for the purposes of adding more likes and help each other out.

As you can probably imagine, you get a lot of people posting their stuff, and not as many people reciprocating the love. Bigger problems in the world, I know.  #firstworldbloggerproblems.
 
I don't recall how it is worded every time, but the most recent thread specifically said "let's start a thread with our pages to add more likes and help each other out."

A few of us have had private discussions about this and I've confirmed that I'm not the only one to go out and Give-a-Like and not get a reciprocal like in return.  Again,  #firstworldbloggerproblems.

Some people, apparently believe in the purity and sanctity of the Page Like and only want to like content that interests them and not clog their feeds with a bunch of noise.  I get that, even though it is well established that Facebook and Zuckerberg determine what you see.  And if you really want, you can configure things not to appear in your feed although FB will change that six months later and you might have to do it again.

I also understand that you might post your info and wait to see if you gain any likes before you reciprocate.  I can see that someone who got burned once or twice would wait until they get some likes before dolling them out.

On the other hand, it takes a certain type of person to deliberately post a "hey like my page" comment without any intention of reciprocation.   If you're not willing to help your fellow blogger out by doing something that literally doesn't require getting off the sofa, what does that say about you? 

I've tried to look at this from the other side and I can only think that maybe they somehow feel that helping another blogger might be taking potential readership away from their own content?  I think this is called a zero-sum game, which blogging certainly isn't.

I should point out that this latest round brought 25 new likes to my page but perhaps only because I went to every page listed and wrote "Liked.  I would appreciate a reciprocal like" and included the link back to my page.  Public shaming?  Perhaps, but it worked.  Between that and a few personal notes to friends begging them to throw me a like, I'm closing in on 400, which is nothing in the grand scheme things.

Most everyone complied and one person even noted that they had already liked my page a long time ago.  Another person had to point out that I had already posted a similar message about a year ago.  I looked and saw that I had and while she said she would like back, she clearly didn't so I guess I removed my like.  Kinda petty on both our parts I suppose.

Update:  it has occurred to me, in hindsight, that it is possible the person liked my page as their page, which is something you can do logged in as your Facebook Fan Page instead of your normal account.  The thing is, this doesn't do the recipient any good.  Your like count doesn't increase nor does your internet presence expand, as far as I can tell.

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