👻 Have you got ghost followers? I’m talking about the people who follow your Facebook page but rarely, if ever, like, comment on or share your posts.

I’ve seen a few posts recently warning business owners that these so-called ghost followers are damaging their Facebook pages — and suggesting that we should be removing them.

I’ve also seen advice that we should always follow and comment from our personal profiles rather than our business pages because Facebook will apparently show us to more people, or that the algorithm will penalise you for doing this and it will damage your page.

So, as it’s nearly Halloween, I thought it was time to investigate some of these Facebook scares.

Because there’s a difference between something that might be useful to do and something Facebook actually says you need to do.

👻 What exactly is a ghost follower?

There’s no official Facebook definition of a ghost follower.

It’s generally used to describe someone who follows your page but doesn’t regularly interact with your content. It might be that they haven’t liked anything for six months – it could be they haven’t commented for two years. Perhaps they followed you when they bought something from you and haven’t looked at your page since – or they could simply be a silent follower. There’s a world of difference between the two.

Not everyone who enjoys your content is going to click the like button time every time they see it.

• Some people read.
• Some watch.
• Some save something for later.
• Some occasionally click through to your website.
• Some are simply interested in what you do but don’t feel the need to publicly interact with you.
• Some people are perfectly happy lurking in the background!

That doesn’t automatically make them a bad follower. My clients often come from businesses who don’t interact with me – or even follow me. 

👻 Do ghost followers damage your Facebook Page?

This is where things get interesting. You’ll often see the claim that having lots of inactive followers tells Facebook that nobody is interested in your content, so Facebook stops showing your posts to the people who do want to see them. I can see why people would think that as it’s logical explanation.

But, according to my research, Facebook’s feed isn’t that simple. Meta uses many different signals when deciding what content to show to an individual person. Interactions are certainly part of that picture, but Facebook isn’t simply looking at your follower list and thinking – ‘mmm, this page has 4,000 followers, but only 200 engage. Think I’d better hide it.’

That’s not how Meta describes its ranking system, and I can find no official evidence or rule on Facebook that says you need to regularly remove followers who don’t engage with your page. I think from a housekeeping point of view, it makes sense to delete the accounts that follow you if their accounts are dead or they haven’t posted for a couple of years, but I wouldn’t obsess over it.

So, before you start deleting hundreds of people because you think they’re haunting your page, take a step back and think about it…

👻 You don’t need to conduct a ghost hunt just because someone hasn’t liked your last ten posts.

👻 I’d rather have 100 genuine followers than 1,000 who aren’t genuine!

Yes, of course, and this totally makes sense. I’d rather have genuine followers who like my business, follow because they are interested in, or love my content, and enjoy interacting with my posts. That’s why I’m not a fan of follow-for-follow strategies.

If you’re building a small business, for example, having hundreds of followers who are only there because they expect you to follow them back isn’t going to help you sell your products.

It’s much better to build connections and relationships with your audience – those who genuinely:

• like what you make
• love the service you offer
• need what you sell
• recommend you to someone else
• share your content
• visit your website
• join your mailing list
• become a customer

But that doesn’t mean everyone who isn’t regularly interacting is useless. We’ve all had customers or clients who contact us about our products or services and tell us that they have been following us for a while and have now decided to buy or book a consultation.

But we don’t know them, don’t recognise their name or business and know they don’t interact with our page. But they’re there – in the background – just waiting for when the time is right for them to interact or buy. If you delete them as a follower, they won’t see your posts at all and won’t be a potential customer. So, you have to be careful in who you delete and who you keep.  

👻 Facebook shows my posts to fewer people because I have inactive followers

I’ve seen this claim a lot and it’s one I’d be cautious about. I’m not saying it might not have an effect, but the systems that Facebook uses are constantly looking at your page, deciding what individual people are likely to find interesting and relevant. Your followers don’t all see exactly the same posts – some will see today’s post – some will see one from a few days ago if Facebook systems deem that’s more interesting to you.

I mentioned this in a post last week, but Facebook often recommends content from pages that you don’t follow, because they know the kind of content/business you interact with. This is potentially a good thing – if they’re showing you content from pages you don’t follow, it’s likely they’re showing your page to people that don’t follow you! Those people could be a potential new follower or customer.

So don’t automatically think that because your followers aren’t seeing your posts that Facebook or the algorithm are hiding your business. There are lots of reasons someone might not see a particular post, such as:

• They have personalised their feed
• They’re not on Facebook at the time you post
• They’re scrolling past.
• They’re watching Reels instead
• They’re seeing other content that Facebook thinks is more relevant to them at that particular moment

It could be a number or reasons – an internet outage, power cut, they’re on holiday, they’re doing other things that day – they’re simply not looking at their Facebook feed much that day. These are much more logical reasons than Facebook hiding your page.

👤 Should you comment from your personal profile instead of your business Page?

This is a real bone of contention, and I see lots of small businesses putting up posts asking people to only comment (and sometimes only follow) on their business page with their personal profile, as Facebook will then show your business to more people and so gain you more reach.

I can see why this might be recommended – and there are some very good reasons for interacting with other businesses from your personal profile. Here are some reasons for each – but to be honest, none of them are set in stone – and you won’t be penalised if you use either.

When to Comment as Your Business Page

• Build brand awareness: Commenting as your page puts your business name, logo, and link directly in front of other users and page admins – this is useful in groups.
• Establish authority: It shows official representation when answering industry questions or responding to customer inquiries.
• Separate business and personal life: It keeps your private photos, family updates, and personal opinions away from your commercial reputation. Officially, Facebook say that a personal page is for family and friends and that a business page is for business. That’s why it’s not a good idea to only have a personal page if you run a business.

When to Comment as Your Personal Profile

• Increase engagement: Some people believe that personal profiles get better visibility in newsfeeds, but it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference. If you’re posting content that people don’t want to engage with, they’ll ultimately see fewer of your posts – if they engage a lot, they’ll see more – that’s how the algorithm works.
• Network authentically: People generally prefer interacting with a real human face and name rather than a logo in community groups or casual discussions – and some business pages and groups prefer their followers or group members to do this. You can also tag individuals in posts, which you can’t do on a business page.
• It can be difficult to know who a business page is – I can definitely see that this is a downside to using a business page to post – if people use a personal page, you know who they are. But this has the flipside in that you don’t always know which business is commenting on your post if they use their personal profile, which means you have to search them to find their business if you want to reciprocate by commenting on their posts.

My business page includes my name, so it doesn’t really matter which page I use as my page covers all of the above because it includes my full name, but I understand why businesses only want personal interaction and I try to remember which pages I follow prefer this – I don’t always get it right, but I always genuinely interact, so personally I don’t feel that it matters!

So, I guess how you comment depends on what you want to achieve. I don’t post business related stuff on my personal page, (in fact I hardly use it at all), but I mix up commenting between both pages and follow businesses from one or both pages.

Facebook rewards you with more reach because you commented from your personal profile.

I’ve checked Facebook/Meta’s own guidance, and I can’t find an official rule or requirement stating that comments must come exclusively from personal profiles to boost reach.

The only thing I did find was around their AI system. “…several AI systems may work together to deliver an overall product experience. In Facebook Feed, for example, one AI system ranks content from friends, Pages, and groups that people are connected to, and another AI system ranks recommended content that they may be interested in from others they are not connected to. What people see in their Feed is a balanced combination of the outputs of both AI systems in addition to advertisements and additional product offerings such as groups and reels.”

Source: https://transparency.meta.com/features/explaining-ranking/

So, it’s basically saying that everything is taken into consideration when determining reach. 

So, if you’re working from your business page and you see something you want to comment on, you haven’t broken Facebook by commenting as your business!

And honestly, I don’t want to advise small business owners that they spend loads of time trying to remember which personal profile belongs to which business just because they’ve heard that Facebook has a secret preference. It’s more about what makes sense for that interaction.

If you’re having a personal conversation with another business owner, your personal profile may feel more natural.

If you’re representing your business, commenting as your business may be more appropriate.

Be human. Be genuine. Don’t over complicate things. Do what you feel is right for you – and if someone you follow prefers you to comment from your personal profile, it’s only fair to respect that, but don’t panic if you occasionally forget!

🔎 So, should you go hunting for your ghost followers?

I’d say – not just because someone told you they’re damaging your page.

If you do want to remove dead accounts or if Facebook gives you a reason to remove a follower, such as identifying a spam account or someone who is inappropriate on your page, that’s a no brainer. But don’t feel that you have to spend hours each month removing accounts that don’t interact with you.

Remember – they might be watching – they might be reading – they might be lurking in the background – they might be recommending you privately. And you might find that six months down the line, they buy from you!

👻 Don’t let Facebook folklore frighten you

There are so many so-called ‘rules’ around how you ‘should’ manage your Facebook page.

• Post at exactly xxxx o’clock.
• Always comment within the first five minutes.
• Delete inactive followers.
• Comment from your personal profile.
• Use exactly five hashtags.
• Never edit a post.

Never do this…Always do that. And of course, some of the recommendations may be true – or have a grain of truth behind them – some of them start as a vague rumour, that develops like Chinese whispers into ‘rules’ that aren’t really there.

But before you completely change the way you use Facebook, ask yourself if what you’re reading is something that Facebook or Meta have actually said, (and this is easy to simply google, making sure you ask – is this a genuine Facebook or Meta rule or regulation?) – or is it something that someone says Facebook or Meta says.

And when it comes to your business, it’s much better to spend your time creating useful content, talking to your customers, and building genuine relationships than hunting imaginary ghosts around your follower list!

Happy Halloween Month! 👻 And if you do spot a ghost lurking on your page…maybe just say hello. 😂