Mideast advertisers shifting focus from Likes as Facebook culls fakes

The number of Likes, caused by spammers and malware, are expected to drop less than 1%, but given the site's vast user base the number of clicks from fraudulent accounts number in the millions.

"Newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes," said Facebook in an official blog post on Friday.

"While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes."

Facebook's reputation as a viable advertising partner was called into question when high profile multinational brands, such as General Motors, started backing off. Coupled with fact that many thousands of ad clicks are fraudulent, the social network appears to be scrambling to save face.

An unknown number of bots, or spam-like programs, have also been deceiving users into unwittingly liking a product, service or brand whilst performing a seemingly innocuous action, such as clicking on a link to a video.

Facebook claims that the clean-up will benefit both users and businesses alike, with clearer analytics on trends and statistics, though it's clear that the social media giants stand to gain the most, given they are now dependent on advertising revenue.

Middle East firms increasingly Facebook savvy, says expert

Yousef Tuqan Tuqan, CEO of Dubai-based digital agency Flip Media, tells AMEinfo that Middle East businesses are still putting a lot more emphasis on numbers than they should, even setting quotas of Likes in KPI targets, but the region is slowly warming up to what indicators really matter.

"What is happening in the region is that advertisers are finally becoming more sophisticated, and a lot of that is down to the efforts of the agencies, and also the team at Facebook, who are actually educating clients and showing them it's not just about the number of fans but how engaged and active they are," he says.

In cases where brands soar from zero to a several thousand Facebook fans in a short amount of time, eyebrows may be raised, but the days of swollen figures coupled with limited user engagement look to be numbered.

"Ultimately this a good thing for everybody because Facebook actually rewards you more for having an active and engaged audience, than having a massive audience - you want a higher percentage of people who are posting, liking, sharing, commenting and so on," says Tuqan Tuqan.

If you have a million fans who have seemingly clicked the 'Like' button on a Facebook page, effectively subscribing to its updates, then every time that business updates its information, not all of those one million people are necessarily going to see the update, he added. Instead, Facebook only broadcasts to a certain percentage of your fans' newsfeeds, based on how many are typically engaged.

"So if you post stuff all day to an audience of zombies and fake users, who don't click, share or Like, then Facebook will assume the content is less interesting and show it to fewer people next time round," explains Tuqan Tuqan.

Facebook's actions prompt mega-brand backlash

Since posting news on their official blog, and starting to remove fake Likes, brands have been in 'uproar' over their perceived loss in popularity, according to BusinessInsider.com.

Conversation Agency told the US site that some of its high profile clients - namely VH1, Comedy Central and L'Oreal - are reportedly 'angry and confused' over their declining number of Facebook fans.

The main concern here may have been an initial lack in transparency as to why Like numbers were being slashed, but Facebook maintains that a new algorithm, which detects suspicious user activity will ultimately benefit brands.

"These improvements to our site integrity systems benefit both users and brands alike. Users will continue to connect to the Pages and Profiles they authentically want to subscribe to, and Pages will have a more accurate measurement of fan count and demographics," said Facebook's official blog.

"This improvement will allow Pages to produce ever more relevant and interesting content, and brands will see an increase in the true engagement around their content."

Shares of Facebook set a new low on August 31, according to Reuters, falling as much as 5.3% to $18.08, after brokerages cut their price targets on the stock. Facebook has lost more than 50% of its market value since its high profile IPO in May.

Facebook estimates that 1.5% of its users are "undesirable" accounts set up for purposes that violate its terms of service, according to its most recent 10-Q regulatory filing.