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Say Goodbye to Page Likes!

A newly designed Facebook Page Experience is currently being rolled out with a slew of new features. The most prominent is the removal of Likes in favor of Followers, but there are a number of other new features to take note of as well.

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Here are the important changes you will soon see on Pages:

No more likes

Yep. Likes will no longer be shown on a Page (it sounds like the page “Like” is being removed altogether).

Why did this happen? TechCrunch sums it up nicely:

“This came about because Likes were misrepresenting a Page’s true popularity. Many Facebook users had once “Liked” a Page, but later unfollowed the Page to remove its updates from their News Feed as they outgrew their interest.”

A Dedicated News Feed for Pages

This one is actually huge: You can now essentially browse the News Feed as the business page with the ability to interact with posts and join conversations. The feed will suggest other Pages, Groups and trending content to interact with, as well.

Additionally, comments from the Pages users are following will now be highlighted at the top of posts they see in their News Feed. At the same time, people who don’t follow your Page will have chance to start following you when they see your Page’s comments.

New Q&A format

Similar to the Q&A feature available in Instagram stories, the Q&A format for Pages is designed to help Page managers foster interactivity with the audience.

Here’s how to host a Q&A:

1. From your Page, click Create a Post then click Host a Q&A.

2. Add a topic that you’d like group members to ask you about.

3. Add a photo (optional).

4. Write a post to go with your Q&A (optional).

5. As you answer questions, they become part of a stack of questions that your followers can swipe through.

6. Click “End Q&A” in the post menu when you want to wrap it up.

Learn more about this feature on the Help page.

Additional new features

There are a few more things to note:

• New task-based page admin roles are now available (see image below)

• New comment moderation features and spammy content detection

• Updated Insights

Why it matters

While redesigns can cause tough change and learning curves (remember the adjustment to News Feed 2.0 in 2018?), these appear to be good changes all around!

First, ever since users could Like but not Follow a page, the Follower count has been the important metric. So we will not be missing Page Likes.

Another thing to note: This change seems to move the Facebook experience further away from earlier designs in which the pages you “liked” were essential to how you would present yourself to the world via your profile. This chance may be part of the gradual shift to private and semi-private interactions that we continue to observe.

Finally: hidden in this update is a potential opportunity to improve reach through engaging in the News Feed as your Page. Since your Page’s comments will be highlighted in your followers’ feeds, Page Commenting could be a Blue Ocean in the near term, so consider jumping on this soon.

Ready to get started? This update is rolling out now… In the meantime, you can learn more about the “New Page Experience” on its Help page.

Related News

This month, we’ve also got you covered on these important social media news items:

Blog

Like-less Facebook Page design rolling out soon

Facebook Groups add new Engagement Alerts

Twitter testing voice-based Spaces feature

Instagram testing an improved Stories layout for desktop

Here are a few more shareworthy items we’ve been reading…

Channel Updates & News:

• Approve new Facebook Group members with Participant Approvals (FB Community Blog)

• FB’s Brand Collabs Manager now includes FB Group options (FB Community Blog)

• New Branded Content Tag and tools for influencer partnerships (IG Blog)

• Infographic: LinkedIn usage statistics to inform B2B marketers in 2021 (LinkedIn)

• Snapchat broadens eCommerce push with expanded Bitmoji fashion options (Social Media Today)

• New Google feature aggregates short-form videos from TikTok and Instagram (TechCrunch)

• Twitter testing a “Things in Common” feature (Social Media Today)

• Retweets are now functioning like they used to (Twitter Support)

• Pinterest launches new board features for easier planning (Pinterest blog)

Stories & Analysis

• How to utilize the text-based "info-social" trend (IG Blog)

• Reimagining the workplace (predictions for 2021 and beyond) (LinkedIn blog)

• What Santa Can Teach Us About LinkedIn Profiles (LinkedIn blog)

• Analyzing Facebook’s upcoming smart glasses (Social Media Today)

• Latest Facebook campaign against Apple's upcoming data tracking changes (Social Media Today)

• WhatsApp in damage control over privacy concerns (The Verge)

• Insurrection could be a turning point for social media (Marketplace)

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