Facebook is taking away your fans and it's a good thing.

"No, don't hurt my baby!" That's exactly my thought when I clicked on Social Media Today's article on how Facebook's crackdown could hurt your business page. We're already getting docked in the News Feed because we're Pages and not Friends and now you want to take our fans?

The 2016 election brought to light how different accounts were misusing the platform for their benefit. Between fake news, groups sharing propaganda disguised as true facts and false accounts luring you to like and engage on pages, Facebook has had it with those abusing the platform. So what's next? Similar to the Facebook Purge of March 2015 (try explaining that to 25 small businesses that trusted you to grow their fan base 😣), Facebook is using improved detection and suspending suspicious accounts. That means thousands of accounts are being removed from Facebook, and some may even follow your page. Thousands. Gone.

It's a good thing. I promise! Facebook wants to make your page likes more meaningful. You want that true fan, not some spam account. I'll let Facebook speak to it because, well, it's beautiful.

"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.”

One question I always find myself asking, whether I'm creating a post, commenting, sharing or coming up with campaigns is "Is this providing value to my audience?" Same thing with these fake profiles - Are they providing value to your page. No! They will never engage with your content. They will never help expand your reach. They will never tell their friend down the street that your business rocks. Getting rid of these fake fans will only help your overall engagement, and reach in the long term.

Seriously, don't panic. Watch for a drop in Page Likes over the next few months, or if you usually see an average 5% growth, it may drop a bit. You can actually see if those Likes that have been removed were due to suspicious activity through Insights. Head to the 'Likes' tab and click a day to see the activity on your page. You'll see Like and Unlike Sources. Check out the Unlike Sources. It'll look something like this: 
"Holy sh*t that's over 250 people that unliked my page in one day!" Look closer. 249 of those Likes were "Suspicious Account Removal" a.k.a Likes you don't want anyway! Feel better? Good. 

Another thing you may see is a drop in overall reach. I know, again. But Facebook's News Feed VP Adam Mosseri explained at the latest F8 summit that certain factors like "Previous negative feedback on author" affects your reach. (Read that article. Good stuff.👆🏽) Negative feedback includes Unlikes. So if you're losing 249 followers in a day because Facebook wants to help in cleaning things up a bit, you're going to see a drop in reach at first. It's rough, I know. We'll get through this together.

Really, this is great news. It's going to suck for a while but you'll come out on the other end with a better Facebook Page and better analytics. If you're like me and you manage Pages for a business or multiple businesses, the best thing to do is educate your boss/client before the hit comes. Send them this article. Sit down with them and pull up Facebook Insights. You know how you used to be afraid of monsters under the bed until your parents showed you there was nothing there? Same thing. As community managers and social media pros, we're pretty awesome. We just have to share our knowledge and awesomeness with others.

About the Author: Georgi Silvia

Georgi Silvia is the Digital Community Coordinator at State Auto Insurance. She has experience with social media marketing and education from small businesses to large corporations and now manages the social media channels for State Auto.