0

I have been noticing the following issue for a few weeks now and thought it was a delay in updating numbers from Facebook but it seems like a bug or a policy change from Facebook that we are not aware of.

The Issue:

Following is an article from a website. The Facebook Like Button shows a count of 105 Likes for this article.

Link to article: http://rajitachaudhuri.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-year-new-start.html

The same article has been shared on a Facebook Fan Page and the total Likes over there are 439 along with 24 shares and few comments.

Link to post on Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/iipmbschool/posts/366427183372850

As per Facebook Like Button documentation the total Likes count on the website should be an aggregation of all the Likes for the article on the website as well as on Facebook which includes Likes, Comments and Shares from within Facebook. This is clearly not the case now and something else seems to be happening. The numbers on the website are just not correct. I have noticed the same issue in my personal blog too - www.minduread.com

Can someone please help me with this?

Improve this question
1
  • I have been noticing this same problem. In my case, the number of "likes" on the fan page is smaller than the number of "likes" on the social plugin button on my own website. I wondered whether it was an issue with the canonical URL which facebook uses to track the post. But this does not seem to be the case.
    – user17340
    Feb 14, 2012 at 3:49

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

The Facebook graph http://graph.facebook.com/http://rajitachaudhuri.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-year-new-start.html says you have 106 shares so that's your real count for the Like Button plugin.

Consider registering your website under http://www.facebook.com/insights/ to see what could be the problem.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks for the reply, but that is precisely my problem. It shows only a 100+ likes on the website and also the graph whereas the same page received over 400 Likes on Facebook. I have insights installed for my personal blog and it still has the same issue of likes discrepancy. There must be some change that Facebook has done that we are publicly not aware of yet.
    – Kartik Dayanand
    Jan 27, 2012 at 16:58
1

My guess is that facebook considers the two things to be separate entities:

  1. The post on your facebook page. Your name and a link to your facebook page are an integral part of the post. The post includes the link to the blog entry URL but also can contain some text from you, the post-creator, that is specific to that facebook post.
  2. Social plugin "Like" buttons elsewhere on the web (including on the blog entry itself) which refer to this blog entry URL. They have none of the additional context of #1.

So when people click "Like" on #1, they are "liking" the entire package -- not just the shared link. When they click "Like" on #2, they are "liking" just the link itself. Facebook keeps the two sets of "likes" separate.

I find this unfortunate, but my guess is that this issue is by design.

Improve this answer
1

Per the Like button FAQ:

Can I link the Like button to my Facebook page?

Yes. Simply specify the URL of your Facebook page in the href parameter of the button.

So your like button should look similar to this (will vary with options, obviously):

<fb:like href="https://www.facebook.com/iipmbschool" send="false" width="450" show_faces="true" font="arial"></fb:like>
Improve this answer
1
  • And how is your answer related to the question?
    – Alex
    Jun 1, 2012 at 8:11

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.