If you run a page on Facebook, you may have noticed a dip in the amount of ‘likes’ you have.
There are allsorts of weird and wonderful rumours, so what’s actually going on?
In short, they are removing ‘likes’ on pages from inactive accounts, meaning accounts that are no longer used.
Facebook explain:
Businesses use Page audience data to understand what their followers care about. To make audience data even more meaningful for businesses, we’re updating the way Page likes are counted by removing memorialized and voluntarily deactivated accounts from Pages’ like counts. This change ensures that data on Facebook is consistent and up-to-date. Removing inactive Facebook accounts
There are two primary benefits to removing voluntarily deactivated and memorialized Facebook accounts from Pages’ like counts:
Business results: 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.
Consistency: We already filter out likes and comments generated by deactivated or memorialized accounts from individual Page posts, so this update keeps data consistent. What to expect
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. It’s important to remember, though, that these removed likes represent people who were already inactive on Facebook.Going forward, any accounts that are voluntarily deactivated or memorialized will be removed from a Page’s like count. If a deactivated account is reactivated, the account will be re-added to a Page’s like count. Everyone benefits from meaningful information on Facebook. It’s our hope that this update makes Pages even more valuable for businesses.
What does this mean for businesses?
Well, this is a good thing. Your posts won’t be seen by these people anyway. The ‘like correction’ will give page a higher percentage of people engaging with posts.
The update began on 12th March, some pages have barely noticed, whilst other pages have lost thousands of ‘likes’. We Are South Devon lost 70 ‘likes’ on Wednesday, just as we were about to hit 7000. We are back up to 6965, so if you haven’t already, give the page a like and join our community.
