Published: March 5, 2015
Anyone who has been with Facebook since the beginning understands that the rules of Facebook this month will likely not be the rules of Facebook next month. At one point, a few years ago, page “likes” were the best thing for a business. But that quickly changed — and now Facebook is showing that fans on your page are even less important to them — unless they’re the right fans.
Facebook made an announcement this week that they are planning to “[Make] Page Likes More Meaningful.” But what does this mean? It means that the number of fans who “like” your page is about to decrease — maybe significantly.
“Over the coming weeks, Page admins should expect to see a small dip in their number of Page likes as a result of this update,” Facebook explained. “It’s important to remember, though, that these removed likes represent people who were already inactive on Facebook.”
If an account is voluntarily deactivated or memorialized, then Facebook will remove it from your page’s “like” count.
For businesses who report on your fans each month, the sudden drop may be a shock — but because page “likes” is no longer the most important Facebook standard, it shouldn’t be detrimental to your business.
Facebook explained that they want to give your business the most accurate view of who is following your page: “Removing inactive Facebook accounts from Page audience data gives businesses up-to-date insights on the people who actively follow their Page and makes it easier for businesses to find people like their followers through tools like lookalike audiences.”
Remember that engaging with the right customers should be your goal, and the number of people that “like” your page should have nothing to do with that.
By Envano
