Proven through the constant attempts at bringing in more Likes for Pages, which can go as far as paying for fake likes just to bring the number up; Facebook marketers see their Pages’ fan counts as a very important measure of their Facebook campaigns’ success. There have been many features added to Facebook’s list of marketing offerings, and many of them have been primarily beneficial to those who run Pages on the network. Also, most of these marketing features are aimed at bringing in Likes for these Pages, and ultimately getting more followers.

With Facebook’s new redesign have come countless concerns from those who advertise with the company. There is a lot that marketers know about the new design, but there is still a lot that is up in the air. However there is one feature, as it has been reported by InsideFacebook, which will allow marketers to feel a bit more secure about the ways in which they bring in Likes on their Facebook Pages.

Now, there has not been much complaint regarding the loss of fans of Facebook Pages, but with Facebook’s old design these users have had the option to both Like a page and to Unlike a page. Hoping to help marketers keep up their fan counts, Facebook has gotten rid of the Unlike Page option when hiding a story from a Page in their new redesign.

When clicking the small dropdown menu in the corner of a Page post in the old Facebook News Feed, users were given the option to hide the story, and then given the option to hide all stories from said Page or even Unlike the Page completely. Now, users will have the same options when hiding a post, with the exclusion of Unlike a Page. This means that users will have a much more extensive process to go through in order to Unlike a Page, which will hopefully lead to fewer users doing so.

For marketers, maintaining fan numbers is great. On the other hand, Inside Facebook mentions that there is the issue of a loss of reach on the network. With users now having the ability to hide posts from pages, but not to Unlike them, the percentage of reach goes down while the number of Likes stays the same.

But, if there has not been much complaint regarding the amount of people that Unlike pages, why has Facebook made the effort to include this change in their redesign? Well, Facebook wants people to continue liking Pages, even if that is the very furthest that their interaction with said Page goes. Here are some of the reasons that this is important for Facebook;

• Easier collection of information for ad targeting and recommending other Pages
• Giving Page owners more detailed information on demographics
• Giving marketers a better idea of their audiences as a whole, allowing them to create, “hyper-relevant creative for a responsive audience, and gain insights that they can apply to their other marketing efforts.”

This small part of the redesign of Facebook’s News Feed has a lot behind it, and hopefully it will work out just the way Facebook hopes it will.

Written by Michael Levanduski

Michael Levanduski is a news reporter at Performance Marketing Insider. He’s been a writer at one level or another for the past 15+ years. He has three kids and lives in Grand Rapids, MI.

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