Facebook warns Page owners their like counts will drop
Facebook Page owners may not be too pleased about the social network’s latest attempts to reduce the large number of inactive users registered on their service, but in fact it’s not all bad news.
What are Facebook doing?
While it might seem strange for a social network to choose to reduce the number of likes on Facebook Pages, they believe they are acting in the best interests of Page owners. Facebook announced their plans in a blog post earlier this month, and explained the reasons behind their decision. With inactive users removed, Page owners can get a clearer understanding of their audience, as only the users who actively use Facebook will be counted. It will also be more effective to use tools such as advertising to lookalike audiences. This benefits Facebook as these tools are among their primary methods of earning revenue from business users.
How the changes will affect your pages
There’s good news and bad news here. The bad news is that if you own a popular Facebook Page, the like count is likely to decrease this month, with the changes beginning to be implemented on March 12th 2015. This doesn’t look good to consumers, who tend to judge the popularity and quality of a business on social media likes, with a natural tendency to follow the crowd.
However, the good news is that with inactive accounts eradicated from the like count, the ratio between the number of likes and the number of users engaging with your Page will increase. The term “engagement” is used by Facebook to refer to users liking, sharing or commenting on your content. Highly engaged customers who feel connected to a brand are more valuable to that brand, as they are more likely to spend money on their products or services and promote them to their peers.
What can iFactory do to help?
While we can’t stop Facebook removing inactive accounts from your like counts, or make inactive users become active, we can use digital marketing to help you grow your Page’s following on Facebook organically and authentically. Not only do we at iFactory offer advice and assistance in increasing your Page’s number of likes, but we can also help you improve the engagement with your fans by advising you on best practice for social media content and copy writing. To find out more, check out the Digital Marketing section of our website and contact us with any queries. Or check out our Facebook page.
