Facebook is about to make a big change that affects those who run pages on the social network. The company is changing its method of counting page “likes.” The social website will begin subtracting accounts that were either deactivated or memorialized after the owner passed.
Facebook makes changes to help businesses
Facebook didn’t start doing this at the beginning like it should have. The change only accounts for manually deactivated profiles. Likes from profiles that are “inactive,” in a sense, which means the user has not logged onto their profile, are not affected by the change. Facebook will roll out the change in the upcoming weeks. The leading social media site reminds page owners not to panic. They can expect a slight dip, but that number is relative to the number of likes. A page with a dozen likes may not notice a dip, but a page with a million likes may notice a larger dip.
The ultimate goal for the social giant is to give businesses a more up-to-date look at the number of active page followers. Businesses soon will get access to the Custom Audiences tool, which is something companies can use to create an audience similar to their page followers. According to Facebook’s Help Center page, “lookalike audiences” pinpoint potential followers.
Facebook launches suicide prevention tool
Facebook understands it is a powerful tool for communication. The social giant also wants to make a big difference in preventing suicide. The company announced plans recently to add special tools for connecting friends to outside suicide prevention sources. Facebook product manager Rob Boyle said user safety is a top priority. The website’s safety community operations safety specialist, Nicole Staubli, added that if someone sees a friend on Facebook make any direct threat of suicide, they should consult local emergency services immediately. She also recommends that such direct threats be reported to Facebook. They have teams working 24/7 throughout the world ready to help.
