Facebook Pages: LIKES Will Drop

To start with, lets NOT FREAK OUT!!

 Before we start yelling Bloody Murder or complaining that YET AGAIN Facebook is "THE BIG BAD" lets see what is going on here. Yes, there is a 'new' update to Facebook Pages that will be occurring within starting soon if not already. The new updates will affect the number of LIKES that pages have. How will the LIKES be affected? Are they REMOVING LIKES NOW? You mean, besides them limiting who sees our posts, they are now removing LIKES?!?!?!?!  Uhm... CHILL OUT! 

Let's start with correctly defining the differences between a FB PAGE and FB Profile. Why do I need to define the difference, you ask? Unfortunately, many use the term as one in the same or refer to their Profile as their page because its their AUTHOR/professional account. Here's the MAIN difference. PAGES have LIKES and Profiles have Friends. PAGES have UNLIMITED numbers of people that can follow (and by follow I mean LIKE your PAGE) while Profiles have a limit of 5,000 Friends. Once you reach your limit of 5,000 you can no longer add friends. PAGES should be used for Blogs, Business, Authors, etc and Profiles is the account you use in order to create the PAGE, its a user account. You can still use it from a networking perspective but know that it will have its limitations. I have both a PAGE and my Profile. I post all about Books, Blogging, Promoting, Marketing, Sales, etc., on my PAGE! Things like what movie I'm looking forward to or my "Owners of a Kentucky haunted hospital plan to make it a haunted hotel" article or pictures of my doggies on my Profile. My PAGE is also about ME so I do post some of those things there but I don't bombard my friends and family with Books and Marketing stuff. Do I have bloggers and authors "friending" me? YUP! Do they interact with me? Some but most don't. I will accept them as friends because I have become friends with SOME awesome bloggers and authors that started with a simple friend request.

The differences are big and important because having that separation between "business" and "personal" is important and when things like gaining new possible readers is part of your branding and marketing strategy, having a rafflecopter giveaway that includes LIKE A PAGE and then sends the possible new reader to a Profile... well, you could potentially loss HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of NEW READERS!!! YIKES!

Back to the new FB Updates!  

Now that you know the differences between a Profile and PAGES and that no longer are freaking out, here is what's going on with the drops in LIKES. All Facebook is doing is removing LIKES from DEACTIVATED accounts! Basically, if an account is inactive, meaning, an account user has liked your page but since then has cancelled/closed their account (is now deactivated), Facebook will remove that account from your "LIKE" count. The truth is, the removal of non-active accounts will give you an accurate number of how many people are actively engaged and interacting with you! 

Woohoo NO MORE INFLATED NUMBERS!!

From a business perspective, this is fantastic! 

We want to see accurate and true numbers!! Before you start with "Oh readers are not seeing my post" blah blah blah... I'm sorry! I get that many may not see your post, but the truth is that if a reader/follower of YOUR PAGE really wanted to know what you're posting, they are going to FIND YOU! They are going to add you to the "Interest List" and they will TYPE OUT YOUR PAGE'S NAME on that lovely search bar and CLICK on your name to see what is up with you! So this bitching and complaining about "oh, FB is limiting my views", just stop! Post unique content! Interact with people and accept that that there will be some days when people will drop by and say hi and others when they will not and its going to be okay. You will survive! But what's most important is why are you doing what you're doing? To be popular or to share your love of books and share your passion for this industry? Does it matter whether you have 10 LIKES, 100 LIKES or 1,000 LIKES? Quality not Quantity!!!

Many bloggers and authors will have giveaways to gain LIKES and that's fine, but then what? How many of those "LIKES" truly stay engaged because they want to? How many actually follow your blog or read your books? Do they write reviews and leave them on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.? Do they interact with other readers/followers on the page? Do they BUY your books? Do they SHARE your posts when you're posting something funny or about your latest upcoming release, basically something other than a giveaway entry that will get them something for free? 

If the answer to all or most of these questions are no, then what's the point of having 10K+ LIKES? 

I rather have what I have and have it be a small community of TRUE followers/LIKES that interact with me and instead of MILLIONS of sheep that only want to like my PAGE because of my next giveaway. That is just me, though. YOU do YOU! Do I periodically have giveaways that will have a "share" or "Like"? Sure! I want to make sure that the winner is a member of my PAGE. Do I include entries to LIKE my page or follow my other social media platforms when I organize an event? Yes, this provides me with a larger audience and visibility to help promote the authors I support and love! BUT I know many will like my PAGE (and follow my other sites) and NEVER visit me again! Does it SUCK? YES! But that's why I'm okay with Facebook getting rid of the deactivated accounts! I'd be happy if Twitter and the other social media platforms did something similar!

Don't fret, the GOOD NEWS is that if the deactivated account that was removed from your LIKE count becomes active again, the LIKE will be re-added to your page count. 

See Facebook isn't a complete monster! 

For more information, please visit the "Facebook for Business" link. 

Tell us what you think! Should Facebook be messing with the PAGE LIKE Count? Are you concerned with loosing LIKES on your FB PAGE?