I recently got a comment/question on my blog post: What is the difference between liking and following on Facebook? The (paraphrased) question was: If a person has to have first liked a Facebook Page in order to follow it, then how could a Page have more follows than likes?

Good question.

Now this can be confusing because as I had explained in my previous post on this topic: When someone likes a Page they are by default also following it. If you take a look at a Page that you've liked, you'll see a Following button. So you could choose to unfollow a Page while still liking it. 

However what I didn't explain is that you could also do the opposite, which is to choose follow a page but not like it. So mystery solved! That's why a Facebook Page could end up with more follows than likes.

In case you're wondering, here's my answer to the comment/question above, which inspired this blog post :

It is possible for your Page to have more "follows" than "likes" because people can "follow" your Page and not "like" it. Your Facebook Page followers includes anyone who has chosen to "follow" your Page whether they "liked" your Page or not. There are many reasons someone might choose to "follow" a Page and not "like" it: social listening, monitoring competitors, market research, and political and industry monitoring.

This reminds me about a useful feature that allows you to monitor other Facebook Pages without liking or following them, Facebook Pages to Watch. That's going to be the subject of a future blog post: What is the Facebook Pages to Watch Feature and How Do You Use it?

You might also be interested in my next blog post: What's Better a Facebook Like or Follow?