The difference between page followers and likes on Facebook
Page admins may have noticed that they have both a like count and a follow count. On the flip side, those on a Facebook page may have noticed they can either like or follow the page. We explain the difference.
Follow a page
When you choose to follow a page, you can get that posts that page makes appear in your newsfeed (depending on Facebook’s algorithms, of course.) Following a page doesn’t mean you become a fan of that page, however. So if you choose to follow – but not like – a page, you will get the updates from that page, but the page will not appear in your list of likes.
Liking a page
Liking a page means that you become a “fan” of that page. Depending on your privacy settings, others can see that you have liked the page. When you like a page, you automatically follow the page too. However you can then unfollow the page if you wish.
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Can I follow a page and not like it? Or like a page and not follow it?
You can do both. You can like a page, and then choose to unfollow it. This means you’ll appear as a fan of the page and others may be able to see you like the page. But you won’t get posts it makes appear in your newsfeed.
Alternatively, you can follow a page instead of liking it. This means the page won’t appear in your list of likes, but you will still get updates the page makes.
See First
Not only can do like or follow (or both) a page, you can also choose the See First option, which means posts the page makes are prioritised in your newsfeed. You can see this option when you tap (or hover) over the follow button on the page.
Can you like and follow people too?
You can follow people on Facebook, if they enable the option. This mean their public updates appear in your newsfeed, but not their friends only updates (unless, of course, you are friends on Facebook.)
You cannot like people on Facebook. The equivalent to that would be to become friends with a person, but of course both people have to agree to be friends for that connection to happen. While page likes cannot be rejected, friend requests to a person can be rejected.
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