Facebook To Change How It Counts Likes

Liked No More

Facebook are messing around with their algorithms and likes once again.

It seems to me that Facebook never can quite nail down just how they want all of their business and marketing tools to function. I’d happily estimate that within the next few years they still won’t have decided and will still be trying to work out how to best use the tools at their disposal.

In their next steps to try and figure out what works best, Facebook have announced that they’re going to changing how their count Likes.

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Before you panic, don’t worry, it won’t affect any of your personal accounts. So you can stand proud of your profile picture with 100 Likes and rest assured it’ll stick with those triples.

So what exactly are Facebook planning to change? They’re no longer going to count likes from people who have either deactivated their accounts or passed away. Also, this will only apply to celebrity and business pages.

This change should hopefully make it clearer to businesses about how many likes they really command and how relevant those likes are to their brands. This should hopefully lead to more conversions when compared to the current like count.

In a blog post where Facebook announced this change, they commented that:

‘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.’

Facebook then went on to talk about the benefits:

‘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.’

Facebook have warned businesses and celebrities that over the next few days they should be expecting a ‘small dip’ in their like count. So if you notice any differences on your own pages, don’t worry, those likes didn't really exist anyway. Also, if someone reactivates their account, all of their likes will pop up again.

Essentially, all this update is going to do is give businesses and celebrities a more honest Like count.

Facebook aren't necessarily getting everything wrong when it comes to marketing. They're just working out all the kinks very slowly. 

Time will tell how beneficial this all really is though. All eyes on you again, Facebook. 

Tom Welby

Tom has a degree in Creative and Professional Writing and he currently manages, edits and writes for this blog. His other interests include Arnold Schwarzenegger films and his dog. Follow him @TomAtSMF

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