I think there’s some value to the Like, it all depends on what percentage of those Like’s are ‘real’ and what percentages are ‘fake’. 
Engagement as a metric is only the tip of the iceberg as most people are consumers of content and not contributors. The true value lies ultimately in sales and real results. 

But there’s definitely a huge tendency to overvalue ‘Like’s today because it’s one of the most obvious vanity metrics. Brands still do ‘fangating’ with promotions when they are not very logical and there are obvious reasons why it doesn’t work (full disclosureI wrote the article I just linked!) 

 interesting  article   kim..and  we all want meaningful likes….

@kimkline but  i dont get  the point    , or why a like on a business page    isnt at least the  start of   true engagement….i think on a  going  active page  it  can  be  , i think  most of mine  are engaged  heavily  and    a  nice part of the  selling process…the like they  did  for my page   isnt  as  engaged  as  them  coming into the  store and  buying   …..but it  is  often part of that   trail…….

imho  if you are trying to serve   downtown businesses in their  social media  project      they would like to see where  you led another  business to an active page with lots of likes….if  you say likes   dont matter i t wouldnt  be  very  convincing….and    then why would they   bother with   working on their page?   they  could  just  get  10  fans and  be happy?