Facebook are starting their Spring Clean

Facebook are on the move yet again to ensure that no funny business is going on with the amount of page likes a particular Page has.

As of 12th of March (yep, that soon), Facebook is going to start removing inactive accounts from Pages’ like counts. They have said 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 comes as no surprise – Facebook has always been on a mission to make sure they provide businesses with the most accurate information that they have access to. In the blog post that they released yesterday, they said that “this change ensures that data on Facebook is consistent and up-to-date.”

A welcome change

Before you start to groan about how inconvenient and annoying this could be for your Facebook page, let’s have a little think about what it actually means. Firstly, it’s going to improve business’s results, giving business pages up-to-date insights on the people who actively follow their page, therefore making it easier for businesses to find people similar to their remaining followers through lookalike audience tools.

Secondly, it’s also going to mean that business results are consistent with individual users’ experiences; also helping you reach the right people. So, whilst your number of Likes may see a small dip, remember that these removed Likes represent inactive accounts who were never on Facebook to begin with. Quality Likes are definitely better than quantity, so don’t be dis-heartened if you see a little drop in numbers.

All is not lost

It’s a brilliant (if not forced) opportunity to give your page a little dust off and the spring clean it needs to get back on track with your existing fan base. And if a deactivated account is reactivated, any likes from that account will be re-added to a Page’s like count.