Starting March 12, 2015, Social Media Managers may start seeing lower total like numbers for their pages.

Facebook are notifying account holders with the following message: We’ve recently updated the way we measure how many people like your page. Pages may see a decrease in likes after March 12, when we removed likes from inactive Facebook accounts.

Facebook has also confirmed the move in a Facebook for Business post, saying that the social network is focusing on accounts that were memorialized for deceased users, or voluntarily deactivated.

The following helps explain the reasons behind the move by Facebook:

– Business results: 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.

– Consistency: Facebook already filters out likes and comments generated by deactivated or memorialized accounts from individual page posts, so this update keeps data consistent.

And the social network informed Social Media Managers what they can soon expect, with the message below:

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. 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.

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