In her post "Best Choice: Facebook LIKE or Qualified eMail Address?" Pam Moore asks the question: "If you had to pick one, what would it be? A Facebook “like” or an email address? "

Her answer (and also mine) is this: If I have the choice of a qualified email address or a “like” of my Facebook business page, I choose the email address.

Why? Here are some of her reasons:

“Likes” are good but the real value comes in your ability to inspire them to action past the “like”.
Just because someone “likes” your page doesn’t mean they have ever looked at anything you’ve posted since the first day they clicked “like”.  The majority of Facebook “likers” will never visit the page they liked again. It’s up to you to inspire your Facebook fans to further engage and join your community.

It is more intimate. 
It helps us nurture client relationships. We know who’s opening what content. We know what they like, what they don’t like. We are then able to better serve them up entertaining content on the Facebook page, Twitter feeds and LinkedIn conversations.

eMail builds trust and thought leadership. 
Obviously the email subscriber has more skin in the game than a simple “liker”.  From first click of the “subscribe” button they are making a silent statement of trust. It’s up to me what I do with that trust.

I can easily get my email subscribers to my Facebook page. 
Not always so easy to get a Facebook “liker’s” email address.

It works. 
Bottom line, every time I send out an email to our audience, the phone rings. Can’t say the same thing for every time I post on my Facebook page or get a Facebook like. We are seeing good results with integrating email to our marketing and social media efforts. I can’t imagine our business without our automated email nurturing system integrated into the DNA of our audience communications.

Read the full article here.

Do you agree? Disagree? I look forward to your comments!

Update: I just came across this interesting article from Loren McDonald on this subject. Check it out!