Page administrators will potentially notice a drop in the number of 'likes' that their page has within the coming weeks as Facebook implements an action to remove certain accounts from being counted in those page 'like' tallies.


According to a recent blog post, Facebook says the change is to "make audience data even more meaningful for business" and "ensure that data on Facebook is consistent and up to date."

What this translates into is; deactivated accounts will not be counted, and starting on March 12, these type of accounts will be purged. So the 500 people you thought you were reaching, which actually turns out to be 3 people, will now drop to 1 person - but at least that 1 person will be real.

"Over the coming weeks, Page admins should expect to see a small dip in their number of Page likes as a result of this update, and it’s important to remember, though, that these removed likes represent people who were already inactive on Facebook."

Going forward, any accounts that are voluntarily deactivated or memorialized will be removed from a Page’s like count. If a deactivated account is reactivated, the account will be re-added to a Page’s like count.