Facebook's Business Page Likes Will Drop As They Get More Accurate

Social media can be a great tool for modern businesses. We've seen a growing number of businesses use Facebook to promote their brands. Some low-budget businesses forgo a website altogether and only create a Facebook page instead. These businesses should prepare for a drop in Page likes because Facebook for Business just announced a new change in the way their Page likes are counted. To start, they are expunging business Page likes from deactivated accounts. Now, any likes from memorialized accounts or accounts that were voluntarily closed will no longer show up on a Page's like count.

Using Facebook as a sole business platform has its drawbacks. Although businesses can pay for additional promotion, they mainly use Facebook because it's free. Facebook had input a Facebook for Business system a couple of years ago. Businesses tried it, but even larger companies like General Motors left Facebook after realizing its advertising "had little impact on consumers."

Facebook is aiming for transparency in their Page likes system. They may have instigated these changes as a response to accusations 4 out of 4 of its likes and advertisement clicks may be faked. Certainly a small percentage of bots is to be expected, but that number, if it is true, is ridiculous. There would be no point in advertisers or businesses paying for promotion on Facebook if the majority of clicks are fraudulent.

Facebook is attempting to clean up it's act, making it a more relevant place for businesses to advertise. Unfortunately for Facebook, simply removing likes from dead accounts may not really be enough to sway businesses to shell out money for boosted Page visibility or promotion.

Source: Facebook