Facebook Revamps Layout Of Pages, Removes ‘Likes’ Metric To Focus On Followers

Facebook is rolling out today several updates to Pages — or the profiles harnessed by public figures and creators. The updates will include a more intuitive design, Facebook says, as well as added engagement and account management tools and improved safety features.

As part of these updates, Facebook also says it’s removing the ‘likes’ metric from Pages to focus on followers (both metrics are currently displayed) in a bid for simplification. “Followers of a Page represent the people who can receive updates from Pages, which helps give public figures a stronger indication of their fan base,” the company wrote in a blog post. To that end, ‘likes’ only signified public endorsement, but did not mean that fans were opting in to content updates.

Additionally, the new Pages

design will enable creators to switch more seamlessly between their personal and public profiles, Facebook says, and will also include new News Feeds within Pages, enabling creators to more easily join conversations, follow trends, and interact with fans. A new text-based Q&A format will also be available.

In terms of account management, Facebook will now enable Pages owners to to assign administrative access permissions based on specific tasks — be it insights, advertising, content, or messages, for instance. And finally, Facebook says it’s working to expand verified badges on all posts from Page creators to make it easier to identify that these posts are authentic.

You can read more about the updates to Pages on the company’s blog.