Early this month (January) Facebook announced another big change: New Pages Experience. What’s the biggest takeaway from this? Facebook Page LIKES are going away and Facebook Business Pages will only have FOLLOWERS.

As you may know, a person could like your Page, BUT choose to unfollow it. This means that person would not see your content at all in their feed. A follower is much more likely to see your content in their feed.

Follower count has long been a better ‘signal,’ as Facebook calls it, of the total number of people who would like to see your Facebook Page’s posts in their feed. (Unfortunately, organic reach is so low these days that only a small percent of followers actually see Page posts, anyway).

Switching to the New Pages Experience is optional (for now), and is only available to some pages, so far. For Red Mango Marketing customers whose Facebook pages we manage – we have the new layout and have been using it for months. What about you, can you see it?

Facebook’s New Pages Experience update also includes a number of other new features, such as:

• A redesigned layout that’s simpler and more intuitive (according to Facebook)
• A dedicated News Feed (which is already there on Classic Pages, but with the new one we see suggestions and possibly soon, Ad placements.
• Easy navigation between personal profile and Pages
• Updated admin controls for full control or partial access

If you have the option to switch to the new Page Experience, we recommend that you switch your Page’s call-to-action button to ‘Follow’ for now in the lead-up to this change. Also, consider encouraging your followers to enable notifications for your Page posts (especially Live video if you go live!), and to add your Page to their Favorites (formerly ‘See First.’).

WHAT HAPPENS TO PAGE LIKES WHEN YOU SWITCH TO THE NEW PAGES EXPERIENCE?

• If someone likes AND follows your classic Facebook Page, they will continue to be a follower for the new Page and added to your total follower count.
• If someone likes your classic Facebook Page but does not follow it, they will not transfer to your new Facebook Page as a follower.
• If someone follows your classic Facebook Page but does not choose to like it, they will still transfer to your new Facebook Page as a follower.
• Facebook Page likes will not be supported on your new Facebook Business Page, and Facebook Page like count will no longer be accessible.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU SWITCH BACK TO CLASSIC PAGE?

• If you switch back to a classic Page from a new Page, your followers will remain the same.
• If you switch back to a classic Page from a new Page, you will still have all the likes from your classic Page, unless they unfollowed your new Page.
• Anyone that followed your new Page will be added to follows for your classic Page.

Resources:
Find out more here:
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/NewPageExperience/

Getting started with the new Facebook Page experience

Have any questions for the Red Mango Marketing team? Feel free to reach out and contact us.