Run a Facebook page? You could be about to lose a whole load of likes

In a blog post yesterday, Facebook announced that it is updating the way likes on Pages are calculated.

The way it will do this is by removing inactive accounts, which are memorialised and voluntarily deactivated accounts.

At face value, this might have a few Page managers panicking. A Facebook Page is, after all defined by its likes. The more likes that a page has the more popular it is. But it could actually benefit those managers, especially if they’re running a business Page. While a page might look impressive based on the likes it has, if it has memorialised and deactivated accounts liking it, then it is not helping the business.

The move makes even more sense when you remember that businesses mostly use Facebook Pages as data to understand what their customers like. This change, Facebook says, will ensure that the data obtained on the Facebook Pages is consistent and up-to-date.

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Facebook gives two main reasons for the change. One reason is that “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”.

The second reason comes down to consistency. Facebook says that the change will keep data consistent: with dead likes, it cannot be certain about a Page’s reach.

What does this mean for Pages? Well, Facebook points out, you could will see a drop in Page likes. These are however likes that were already inactive on Facebook.

Moving forward, Page likes from voluntarily deactivated or memorialised will be automatically removed from a Page’s like count. If a deactivated account is reactivated, the account will be automatically re-added to a Page’s like count.