How can I not show Facebook fans?

September 19, 2008 6:32 AM

How can I make a Facebook page for my nonprofit, but not show fans?

I am making a Facebook page to promote an organization I work with, but my boss doesn't want to show our number of fans. We probably won't have many, and he thinks (rightly), that it will look sort of sad to say "So-and-so has 4 fans."

Is there a way to do this? When I am editing the page, all the other boxes have X's on them, and I can make them go away, but the "Fans" box isn't X-able.

It would be fine to just not HAVE any fans, too, instead of hiding them.

I'm trying to get this up ASAP, so any help would be SUPER appreciated. Thanks!

posted by allen8219 to computers & internet (6 comments total)

The whole point of those pages are to get 'fans', so I'm fairly certain you can't hide the amount of fans you have. Not having any would still show up as 0 fans.
posted by lullaby at 7:00 AM on September 19, 2008

I don't believe it's possible - 'fans' are a fairly integral part of Facebook Pages, they are even ranked in search listings by the number of fans. I couldn't see any straightforward way of removing the fan functionality.
posted by jacalata at 7:25 AM on September 19, 2008

Just have more confidence in yourself - you'll probably have more than 4 fans after a while!
posted by norabarnacl3 at 7:30 AM on September 19, 2008

Surely you (and other employees) have more than that many friends. Invite your friends to join at least temporarily as a favor to make the numbers look better.
posted by grouse at 8:20 AM on September 19, 2008

Also, if you don't allow your page to have fans, people won't be able to "subscribe" to your page. Fans of a page get notified when you make updates about events, fundraisers, etc. If you don't allow fans, no one will be able to participate on your page.
posted by bluefly at 8:55 AM on September 19, 2008

Thanks everybody... disappointing, but that's what I needed to know.
posted by allen8219 at 11:48 AM on September 19, 2008