Facebook is reportedly testing a redesign for Facebook Pages that aims to remove the Likes counter. Facebook first tested the redesign with a small number of celebrity accounts.
The company is now expanding it to certain English-language Facebook business pages. The redesign is seen as a step to reduce the complexity of Facebook Pages, which in its current state, shows a lot of information that might become overwhelming to visitors.
As mentioned earlier, the major difference with the redesign is the removal of Likes. With this change, Pages will no longer show the Like button and number of likes. Facebook is hoping that page owners will be able to rely on followers count to check who actually engages with their content. The number of likes doesn’t usually translate to active engagement since users can always choose to unfollow the page to stop getting updates on their News Feed.
For those unaware, Facebook Pages currently have an option to “Like” the page. Clicking on that button automatically makes the user a follower of the page as well. However, users can easily unfollow the page, making it harder for owners to know how many people actually care about engaging with the page.
Anyway, apart from the visual change, the company will add a neat way to let users quickly switch between their personal Facebook profile and their Pages. This approach has already proven successful in Facebook-owned Instagram where users can quickly switch between multiple-profiles. In fact, Facebook’s implementation looks remarkably similar to Instagram’s.
The social media giant is also working on better admin access permission controls. Anyone who owns a Facebook page will know how confusing it is to assign permissions to page admins in a clear and concise manner. To help with that, there’s a new “Edit Access” page that would help Page owners tweak settings for permissions surrounding Content, Messages, Community Activity, Ads, and Insights.
In addition, Facebook is adding a new Insights section that incorporates insights right into posts. The section will show top posts and the page’s audience overlap with a connected Instagram account among others details.
The redesign is currently available on Facebook mobile app for certain users. Although Facebook has not announced the timeline for a wider rollout, it might happen in the coming weeks.
