Facebook Is Removing Your Pages Likes
Facebook today announced some sweeping changes to the way Pages work. Pages have been around for years and years at Facebook, and with these changes, they're losing some features that have been present since the beginning. For instance, Likes will be going away, with Facebook deciding to shift the focus to Followers for Pages.
Facebook says that switching from Likes to Followers gives Page owners a better grasp of just how large their fanbase is, because the Followers list shows Page owners how many people are receiving updates from them. In fact, getting Pages posts in front of more eyes seems to be the driving force behind a lot of these changes, as Facebook says that it will also be bringing dedicated News Feeds to Pages for the first time.
"Now Pages can discover and join conversations, follow trends, interact with peers and engage with fans," Facebook wrote in a blog post today. "The dedicated News Feed will also suggest new connections — other public figures, Pages, Groups and trending content that a Page or public figure cares about." Facebook also says that users will be able to follow Pages directly from comments and recommendations as well, which is a nice touch that should make it easier for Pages to pull in new followers.
Page owners will also be able to host text-based Q&A sessions with Followers. Getting a Q&A set up seems pretty simple, as Page owners only need to create a post, open the options menu and select "Host a Q&A," then add a topic they want Followers to stick to. After that, they just need to add either a photo or a post (or both) to their Q&A and they're good to go.
Facebook has also added to Page management tools that give Page owners more granular control over which admins have access to what, and the company says that it has bolstered its safety features ahead of this roll out to better detect content that isn't allowed on the platform, be it impersonation, spam, hate speech, or harassment. These new Page features will be rolling out to everyone over the coming months, so if you're a Page owner and you don't see them right away, sit tight.