What is the difference between like and share on Facebook?
There are several buttons that you can use on Facebook to show that you really like something – a comment by a friend, a status update, a group or another Internet site. These buttons are called “like” and “share”. While they sort of resemble each other in meaning, they are used in different ways. The like option is a matter of personal taste whereas the “share” button lets you post a page link to your wall so that your friends can have access to it.
In the early days of Facebook there was no Like button so the only way you could share your preferences with your friends was through the Share option. Many webmasters added the Like button to their pages and sites when it became available and some even deleted the Share button in favor of Like. There are ways that you can effectively use both of these options when you use Facebook.
Share Button
With the Share option you can post a link to a site that exists anywhere online and share it with your friends. It is the same thing as copying the URL of the site and pasting it in the status update box on your page. If you take this route, Facebook then takes the link and its snippet and posts it to your wall. You can avoid all of this by simply clicking the Share button on the site page and it will instantly come up on your Facebook profile.
Like Button
The Facebook like button allows you to show friends that you like their posts, groups they have created or links that they have shared. It will simply show as a single line under the entry.
The difference between Facebook Like and Facebook Share
One of the visual ways to let your friends know about a link that you have found or even a link to your own site is to use the Facebook Share option. In addition to showing the image, Facebook will also post a snippet for the site so that your friends will have an idea of what this site is about.
The Like button is more of a personal statement about a comment or a post. There is also an Unlike button associated with this so that if there is something posted that you don’t like then you can use this option instead. There is more to using the Like button though because this creates a connection between you and the person whose post you like. This is like a newsfeed and you get notifications about others who have also liked the post. So in a sense by utilizing the Like button you are subscribing to a newsfeed about this particular post.
There is also an Open Graph application on Facebook. If you use this you can get analytical information about the number of people who like your posts. In this way the like button is better than the Share button.
You can generate a Share button from the share page on Facebook. The code that is used is a combination of JavaScript and HTML code. You can also include a counter to tell you how many times this post has been shared with others.
You can generate a Like button from the developers’ page on Facebook. You can add it as an iFrame code or you can embed it into your site as a JavaScript code.
Conclusion
There is no restriction on the use of either the Like or Share buttons. You can have both or you can have just one. However, you should definitely have one of them because of the power it can bring your site without advertising.