MRI Casino Marketing Blog
Facebook Likes Guideline Changes

Facebook has recently changed its "like" guidelines in an effort to provide more quality and less quantity. The premise is that their business pages will have some likes removed. These likes come from deactivated and memorialized accounts. In the past, these accounts were still shown as likes on business pages, because they had liked the page at one time or another. Since they were deactivated or memorialized before they "unliked" the page, the "like" remained - even if the page didn't.

That might not seem like a big deal, but it did provide an over-inflated number of likes for many business pages. In some cases, there were even hundreds or thousands of likes on a page from accounts that were no longer active. Many people who manage business pages are upset about this change because they'll be losing a lot of likes and that can make their page appear to be less popular. However, the change is actually a good thing for businesses and for users who are seeking out particular business pages on Facebook.

By removing all page likes that don't belong to current, active, valid user accounts, page likes will be a more meaningful way to measure the true popularity of a page. This update will also help the Facebook Insights feature be more up to date and consistent. Businesses use that feature to get an idea of who their audience is, and they'll have a much more accurate picture of that audience when likes from memorialized and deactivated accounts are removed.

Businesses that base their performance on the number of likes their page has should see this change as excellent news, since they won't have any more inflated numbers. With a more accurate picture of their audience, every business can have a renewed opportunity to engage their audience and interact with the people who are really interested in what their business - and their Facebook page - has to offer.

Likes on Facebook are meaningful to a business, and when used properly they can promote the growth and development of that business in a customer-centric way. Customers notice when a business cares what they think, and the more interaction customers have with that business, the more they feel they're being noticed and appreciated. While it makes sense that business will hate to see their Facebook pages lose a lot of their likes, in the long run it will actually be a much more accurate representation of their audience and the strength of their presence on Facebook.

Page admins should expect a dip in the number of page likes from the update. If a business bought likes for its page in the past, that business might see a larger number of likes disappear. Many of the purchased likes may have come from accounts that were fake, so they'll be cleaned out as the system updates. Of course, every page is different. Some businesses may have a much higher number of legitimate likes on their page than other businesses, and they'll see less of a change.

What matters is that Facebook's new guidelines will make it easier for businesses to see their true audience. In the end, that will benefit them and make it easier to reach out to their customers.