As a marketing agency, we manage at least 15 client Facebook pages at one time. Needless to say, it was big news for us when Facebook announced their effort to purge all deactivated accounts. So what does that mean for our clients? Facebook Business Pages will begin to see a decrease in page likes as Facebook starts to delete all deactivated personal profiles, memorialized accounts and spam accounts.
You might have notieced that Page Admins are currently seeing the following at the top of the Insight tab on business pages:
According to Facebook, “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.”
While the dip in Facebook fans might be initially shocking and unnerving, Facebook hopes it will allow for more authentic followers and more accurate Insight data. There are a few things businesses can do to help gain more likes:
- Run Facebook Ads, using specific targeting
- Provide meaningful and interesting content
- Utilize the “Offer” option on Facebook
- Keep the page active, lively and personal
The moral of the story: Businesses should not be shocked to see a slight decrease in Facebook fans. Instead, they should be excited and ready to get back to actively and organically growing their following.
On a side note, Instagram made the move in December to purge spam accounts from many of its users, causing many users following count to drop. Most notably, Kim Kardashian lost 1.3 million followers in the “Great Instagram Purge”.
