Do you run a Facebook Page? Heads up: your page’s “Like” count is probably going to drop a bit soon, and it’s totally not your fault.
The short version: Facebook is changing the way it’s counting likes, subtracting any accounts that have been either manually deactivated or “memorialized” after its owner passed. It’s something that probably should have been done since the beginning — but since it wasn’t, it’d be easy to think your Likes had dropped because of something you’d done.
One thing that’s important to note: it seems that this only accounts for profiles that have been manually deactivated. Likes from profiles that could be considered “inactive” because the user just hasn’t logged in for a while will continue to count.
The shift won’t happen immediately; Facebook says it’ll roll out in “the coming weeks.”
So how many Likes might you lose? It’s tough to say. While Facebook says to expect a “slight dip,” it’s all relative to how many Likes you have to begin with. If your page only has a few dozen likes, you might not even lose one; if it has a few million, that slight dip will feel a bit bigger.
If you run your company’s Facebook page and your boss gauges your performance based on whether that “like” counter keeps climbing, it’s probably a good idea to let them know what’s coming.