Have you noticed that your business page has lost some followers? Perhaps a whole lot of followers?
Well, if you have, you’re not just seeing things. In March, Facebook announced that “to make audience data even more meaningful for businesses” they’re in the process updating the way biz/brand Page likes are counted by “removing memorialized and voluntarily deactivated accounts from Pages’ like counts.”
But wait, it’s not totally terrible news! According to Zuck’s crew, the change will make sure Facebook data is consistent and totally up-to-date.
The removal of these inactive Facebook accounts, will basically result in a couple of benefits:
- Business results: Scrubbing these accounts from brand Page audience data gives said brands/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: Facebook already filters likes and comments out that are generated by deactivated or memorialized accounts from individual Page posts to keep the data supplied by the monolith consistent.
What to expect moving forward?
As you’ve probably already seen, depending on how big your page is when it comes to Likes, a dip in the number of Page likes. But, according to Facebook, people need to remember the removed likes are people who’ve been classified as inactive.
And, it’s going to be like this moving forward with any accounts that are voluntarily deactivated or memorialized. But there is a glimmer of hope if those “lost” fans decide to return to the king of the social media platforms (we’re trademarking that nickname!). Another point to take from the announcement is that if these deactives decide to reactivate, the account will be added back to a Page’s like count.
So, the biggest thing brands can do is shake it off and work double-time to make sure they’re giving killer content and growing their page the right way.
