The Mystery of the Missing @Followers Mention on Facebook Pages with Large Audiences

Managing a Facebook Page with a sizable audience comes with its own set of challenges, but one frustrating limitation that many admins of large pages have encountered is the disappearance (or complete unavailability) of the @followers mention feature.

I manage several Facebook Pages tied to different websites, many of which are Bangla-language based and serve audiences from Bangladesh and West Bengal. One of these Pages boasts over 86,000 followers, yet, surprisingly, I’ve found that I can no longer use the @followers mentions when posting comments. Only @topfans is available as an option. Strangely enough, on smaller Pages I manage—those with a few thousand followers—the @followers mention still appears and works just fine.

This led me down a rabbit hole of research. Here's what I found—and what Facebook hasn't made clear.

What is the @followers Mention?

The @followers mention is a way for Page admins to tag and notify all followers of a Page within a post or comment. It’s especially useful when announcing something important or time-sensitive, such as live sessions, giveaways, or new content.

However, this feature has become inconsistently available, particularly for Pages with larger follower counts.

What Meta’s AI Had to Say

Curious, I posed this question to Meta.ai (Facebook's own AI assistant):

Why don’t I see the @followers mention on my Facebook Page with 86k followers? I only see @topfans.

The response:

Facebook Pages don't have a @followers mention feature like they do for @topfans. Instead, you can mention people, Pages, or groups in a post or comment by typing "@" followed by their name and selecting a name from the list that appears.

To engage with your followers, consider posting updates that will appear in their feeds if they follow your Page. When someone likes a Page, they automatically follow it and may see updates from that Page in their Feed.

If you want to get updates from a Page in your Feed, you can follow it, and if you want to show support for a Page, you can like it. Note that some Pages may only have a Follow button, and if you previously liked a Page but didn't follow it, your connection with that Page may have been removed.

Given your large following of 86k, it's likely that Facebook is prioritizing your @topfans feature to encourage engagement with your most active supporters. Unfortunately, without more information on your specific Page settings, it's hard to say why @followers isn't available, but you can try reaching out to Facebook support for more details.

Essentially, Meta’s AI dances around the issue without offering a direct answer or solution.

Digging Through Facebook Documentation

I scoured Facebook’s Help Center for concrete answers. The official documentation offers some clues but doesn’t provide a definitive reason why the @followers feature is unavailable on large Pages. Here's what I found:

• @everyone is a similar mention feature used in Facebook Groups, but is disabled when a group exceeds 200,000 members (source).
• Batch mentions, which include @followers, can only be used once per day (source).
• If a Page has no followers, obviously, @followers won’t work—but in our case, the Page has over 86k followers.

Still, nothing officially confirms why large Pages can’t access @followers.

Community Speculation: Is It About Ads?

In a number of forums and comment threads, many users are coming to the same conclusion. Here's one example from Quora:

"Facebook is greedy and that option only works on low follower pages! I have over 100,000 followers and Facebook don’t wanna give you that option because they want you to boost posts instead! If they let you do that they would miss ways to make money off you! Advertising isn’t free and that’s that! Trust me that’s all it can be. money money money :)"

While speculative, this theory does make a kind of sense. Facebook’s business model heavily relies on ad revenue. If large page owners could reach all of their followers for free using @followers mentions, the incentive to pay for post boosts or ads might be reduced. Disabling that feature may, intentionally or not, funnel Page owners toward paid engagement.

A Frustrating Lack of Transparency

What’s truly frustrating is the lack of any official explanation from Meta. There’s no documentation, no warning, and no clarity on what triggers the removal of the @followers feature. Is it a follower-count threshold? A location-specific limitation? A gradual rollout? No one seems to know.

In contrast, Facebook clearly outlines restrictions for similar features like @everyone in Groups, but Pages seem to be left in the dark.

What Facebook Should Do

At the very least, Meta owes Page admins clarity and transparency. Whether or not they intend to monetize reach through ads, removing an organic reach tool without explanation feels disingenuous. Large Pages often serve communities, causes, and cultures that don’t have deep pockets for advertising.

If there's a follower threshold or algorithmic condition that disables @followers, users should be made aware, preferably before they lose access to a tool that may have once worked for them.

Final Thoughts

If you manage a large Facebook Page and have suddenly lost access to @followers mentions, you’re not alone. While no official fix or explanation currently exists, it's safe to assume this is either an intentional restriction for large Pages or an unaddressed bug. Either way, the lack of documentation and support is frustrating for those of us trying to build genuine communities without throwing money at every post.

If you’ve experienced something similar or have found a workaround, let’s start a conversation in the comments. The more we document this together, the more pressure we can put on Meta to be transparent and accountable.