For many brands, Facebook "Likes" are like currency. Regardless of how much credence once puts on studies like Forrester's "The Facebook Factor" or comScore's "Power of a Like" -  one thing we can all agree on is that we all want more Facebook fans!

In its study, Forrester found that Facebook fans are more likely to buy (and spend more on), consider, and recommend the brands they engage with on Facebook. comScore's report had similar conclusions showing that even friend of fans exhibited increased purchasing activity.

At Metablocks, a common category of Facebook application we develop are Exclusive Content "Like" Gates.  We have done "Like" gates for music downloads, album covers, sweepstakes, music videos, event calendars, and regular Facebook apps. The more exclusive the content, the better the results!

Last fall we launched a hugely successful "Like" to Download campaign for THQ's Metro Last Light that netted the Facebook page over 800,000 Likes in about a week. This we launched a very similar campaign for Sega's Company of Heros 2 that has netted the page over 100,000 likes so far. The idea is simple -  reward users for "Liking" the page by allowing them to download a beta of game (which comes out in June). The application, however, does a lot more than simply force fans to "Like" the page.

Here is an overview of some key features and functionality:

• Extremely scalable: can handle upwards of 2000 requests a second, has been used to deliver upwards of 1 million unique serial codes
• Secure: issues only one serial code per Facebook user, fraud-prevention features via cookies, session variables and IP addresses
• Ability to collect and store user information (opt-in) including emails, names, serial codes, i.e.
• Ability to message/notify users when the game is available for order (See notifications)
• Reporting and tracking capabilities: Tracks traffic, codes served, shares and other social media metrics, real-time analytics
• Built-in support capabilities: Ability to automatically replace non-working codes, safe-guards to prevent duplicate codes
• Multi-language and multi-region support (See Metro 2033 Giveaway which had support for 12 regions and 9 languages)
• Ability to include other rich media and marketing content (videos, pre-order links, i.e.)
• Comprehensive sharing features (Facebook and Twitter)

Post-Authentication Screen
Once a user authenticates the Facebook application and its it permission to recognize and remember the user, a code is issued (and store). This prevents the wasteful practice of issuing codes to anonymous users. If a user forgets their code, they can always come back and retrieve it, and only once code is issued per Facebook account.

Pre-Like Screen
The initial screen of the application asks users to first "Like" the application before continuing. It then goes on to ask them to give the application permission to authenticate them on Facebook and allows them to opt-in to receive updates from Sega via email.