Likes are mostly how people drum up “interest”. It helps “guage” things, according to people. I personally think it’s silly. I’d rather have 5 genuine likes on my page than 1,000 insincere ones. Another stupid guage is the “friends of friends”, as if that core number is going to drum up business. If I’m looking for a photographer, I don’t go to a friends’ page to see what photogs they like. I do my own research and ask friends who have had photos done or I go to groups. It’s an exposure thing but it shouldn’t be a barometer in which their success is measured – albeit a lot of them try to use it as such.
Cameraclicker, I wish they were like that! Some people use “Get 100 likes on this post/page and I’ll give _____ away!”. One of the League of Legends teams I’m a fan of does that with giving away character/skin codes for the game. Sharing and Liking the post qualifies you to win and when it reaches 100 likes, they pick someone at random.
On a slightly unrelated, but strangely appropriate note: When I managed my Game Stop I gave my employees “brownie points” and when they reached 100, I made them brownies 🙂