In the coming weeks, you may see a slight (or large) change in the likes on your Facebook page. Don’t Panic. TechCrunch and Facebook itself are saying that soon certain page likes will be removed. The news is being received with a relatively mixed bag of reactions.
The Old Way:
When someone clicks “Like” on a Facebook page, that user is able to see posts from the page in their newsfeed. If that user were to die or deactivate their account, the like is still a part of the page. Some pages even purchase likes on their page, which is something I’ll talk about later, but whether they are purchased or organic, the like count is what it is.
The New Way:
Any accounts that belong to deceased users or have been manually deactivated will be removed from your page likes count. Facebook wants people to keep in mind that even though the numbers are going to be lower, those users weren’t interacting with your page anyways, so your likes are of higher quality.
The impact on your page can vary depending on how many likes you have. Pages with a few hundred likes will probably see minimal impact, but pages with thousands or millions might experience a larger hit. This is something to tell any clients or supervisors you may be reporting this data to.
Many users are calling for Facebook to take away purchased likes, and that could be coming down the road, but this is all they have to give (or take away depending on your view) for now.
