One of the big changes related to the new Facebook page experience is the removal of Facebook page likes. Now, a user will only be able to follow a Facebook page and all Facebook page likes will be converted to Facebook page follows.
If you prefer to watch a video tutorial on Facebook likes vs follows, you can also check out this one:
Facebook page likes gone
If you switched to the new Facebook page design, you might have noticed that the number of likes your Facebook page has is no longer visible.
It is not visible, because Facebook page likes have been removed from the FB pages and you can only see the number of followers on your Facebook page from now on.
What happens to my Facebook page likes?
Previous Facebook page likes have been all converted to follows except if the person who liked your Facebook page, unfollowed you.
So if you had too many posts, and people started to unfollow you, you might experience that the number of followers on your page might be lower than the number of likes you had on the classic Facebook page.
What happens to likes and follow if I switch back to classic Facebook pages?
If you don’t like the new Facebook page experience, currently you can still switch back to classic Facebook page design.
If you switch back to classic Facebook pages, you will get back the number of likes your Facebook page had. The people who followed you when you were using the new Facebook page design will stay your Facebook page followers.
Facebook likes vs follows
With classic Facebook pages, users had the option to either like a Facebook page or follow one. Back then when you could only like a Facebook page, likes were more of a sign of affection. If a user liked your page it meant that he or she liked the products or services of that company or brand.
When Facebook page follows were introduced it encouraged people to follow a Facebook page that they not necessarily like but are interested in all the updates the Facebook page shares.
Although many Facebook pages still use the classic Facebook page, eventually all pages will be converted to new Facebook pages where the number of likes will be gone from the page.
So from now on, you should put more emphasis on getting people to follow your page and decrease the number of fans or followers who unfollow your Facebook page.
How to get more Facebook likes or follows?
As we have many tips to get more Facebook page likes or followers, we have a dedicated post on how to more Facebook page likes or follows if you have already been switched to the new Facebook page design.
Regardless of specific tactics, the thing that you have to keep in mind is that from now on, the content you post on Facebook is way more important than the thing you do outside of Facebook.
If your organic posts are valuable for the user and they are engaging, you are more likely to get new Facebook page followers even if your brand is not that well-known outside of Facebook.