Every day is a new opportunity for the social media giant Facebook to improve and advance its services. But whether their changes get reported in advance or abruptly, these decisions can easily affect the digital marketing industry in the Philippines and all around the world. Just recently, Facebook has announced a design revamp on their public pages in the platform. This would include an updated look, navigation, news feed, engagement format through Q&A, tools, and insights among others. Most importantly, pages from companies, organizations, public figures, and artists would no longer have the “like” button. The removal of this feature could significantly affect the way Facebook advertising is managed in the long run. For a better understanding, here’s what to expect once Facebook removes the like button especially for brands, and what can be done about it: Redirected focus to what’s really important Instead of the likes being the main metric of a page’s reach, Facebook wants its users to focus more on the followers. The leading social platform has explained that the former metric can be deceiving, and is not representative of a page’s true popularity.  A like is initially designed for the user to show interest and support for a page. On the other hand, a “follow” would suggest that the user is choosing to see content and updates posted by this page. So while having many likes is a good thing, this does not necessarily mean that the “likers” want to see or engage with this page on their newsfeeds.  By putting more attention on a brand’s following, social media managers could better see and analyze who the fans of their content and offering really are. More stable and accurate measurement Sometimes, the difference between the amount of page likes and followers is not big enough to cause a brand a huge worry. However, if there is a sizable discrepancy between these numbers in the first place, then something might need to change with the brand. This suggests that a new social media marketing strategy is necessary, in order to avoid losing more followers in the future. Additionally, brands could maximize the use of their follower data with this Engagement Rate by post formula from Hootsuite: Engagement Rate of Post = Total engagements on a post / Total followers *100   According to the popular social media management platform, the follower count is generally a more stable metric to use than dividing total engagements by reach. This is because the amount of reach could fluctuate more often, therefore possibly result in inaccurate data. However, keep in mind that other KPIs must still be measured in comparison, to see the bigger picture of a brand’s progress. Opportunity to adjust strategy & content Although garnering many likes is pleasing and gratifying, it could end up nothing more than a vanity metric for brands. Instead, focus on quality over quantity. Spend more time growing committed followers by producing creative and relevant content. Do not underestimate the impact of regularly engaging and being responsive with these followers as well. Unlike most likers, followers are more helpful for brands, as it is more possible to get them through the end of the customer journey. Starting from awareness, these followers are more likely to end up making a purchase decision—which is more significant in achieving the brand’s business goals overall. In the end, removing Facebook likes could cause some brands to stagger a bit at the start. But with more considerations for content strategy, they would be building up their pages for better, more tangible results now and in the long run.