Following an admission earlier this year that many ‘Likes’ are from bogus accounts, it appears the social networking giant is taking steps to address the issue.
Independent figures from Pagedata, a Facebook tracking service, show that the most liked pages are seeing huge drops in numbers.
The Pagedata figures showed that in the past week, (from Tuesday September 25th), Lady Gaga’s page had dropped over 65,000 Likes. Popular TV animation show The Simpsons, had also seen its number of Likes drop by more than 20,000.
The biggest single fall was seen on the Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker page. This had seen about 200,000 Likes wiped off.
These figures were released on Thursday 27th September, so it is likely further reductions have been seen too.
It is the first significant move since Facebook approached the subject in a blog in August. Stating that fake counts would be targeted and removed, it said:
“A Like that doesn’t come from someone truly interested in connecting with a Page benefits no one.
“When a Page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific Page and engaging with that brand’s content.”
It is a bold move for the company though, who has seen its share price plunge since floating earlier this year.
Online marketers and those working in SEO will hope the targeting is focused, to ensure their efforts are not rendered redundant.
With the company working to improve its value as an advertising tool, any removal of genuine accounts will come in for heavy criticism.
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