Facebook Insights It’s Time to Take a New Look!
If you judge your Facebook Page’s success (or lack of) by the number of fans your Page has, you’re really just guessing. Like peeking through a blindfold, you’re not getting the full picture. You probably know that already. If you have attempted to study the data provided by Facebook’s Insights to get a more complete picture, you may have gone away with not much more “insight” than what you went in with. Just more questions…and maybe frustration. If frustration or unanswered questions leave you wondering if your social media strategy is effective or if your efforts are in vain, you can rest assured that Facebook heard our concerns.
New and improved insights
Facebook recently released a much-needed update to its Facebook Insights tool. I mentioned this coming update in a recent article and I am excited to report that I can now see this update on the Facebook Pages that I help administer for clients. The new Insights are certainly more user friendly and offer quite a bit more data.
What stands out most to me in the new Facebook Insights is the vast information we now have to help guide what kind of content, topics, and presentations are most effective with the fans of the Page. Facebook is now taking Page Admins deeper than tracking likes and a simple measure of engagement.
New Insights to Guide Your Facebook Content
Right in the middle of your Page’s Admin Panel, look for Insights and click on “See All” to go to the full Insights tool. This first view gives you a great overview of your Page’s activity for the last seven days. Below this overall data, you can see reach and engagement for your five most recent posts.
This is a fantastic snapshot of your Page’s performance. But, to get the information you need to plan and create effective Facebook content, you will want to drill down past this overview. When you do, here’s what you should look for…
Page Insights
Just next to this Overview tab in the upper left corner you see the Page tab which will show the trend of likes on your Page over time. There is now a great slider that lets you specify the range of dates for this data. While this is a fun new feature, it is not what you’re really here to see.
Look to the second chart on this page and spend some time looking at your likes and unlikes charted as “Net Likes: What Changed.” Take note of any days that saw a significant number of unlikes. Especially if unlikes spike and likes dip at the same time, you may want to look back at what was posted to your page that day.
The data in this chart may be a cue (or a big glaring alarm) that something you posted was not well received by your fans. Alternately, you can use this chart to identify content that may have been quite effective – and you can plan for more posts like that!
At the bottom of this page, you can also see how many of your likes came from directly on the Page, from someone visiting your Page on a mobile device, from Page suggestions, or from your ads. Since we know that a high percentage of Facebook users access their Newsfeed on mobile, if lots of your likes (a third, at least) are not coming from people using a mobile device, you want to be sure your advertising is running on mobile and in the Newsfeed.
Post Insights
In Post Insights, you can see a list of all your posts by date and get a quick sense of what was most successful by reach and by engagement. When you click on a specific post in this table, a pop up like this one will open with more detail.
It is clear from the detailed data shown here that this post was very well received by the vast majority of users. It reached a large number of people. The data on this view is available for each of your posts and provides a great snapshot of the effectiveness of your content. This view is new with the recent update to Facebook Insights.
Another little gem in the Posts tab shows which type of posts perform the best on your page. There is no need to wonder, search or guess at what you should be posting to your Page. You can search the Internet for advice from “experts” but the truth is that your Page and your fans may or may not be typical. Conventional wisdom or expert opinions may not hold true for your Page or for your industry so keep an eye on this report and plan your content accordingly.
Keep in mind that you never want to use just one type of post exclusively. A mix of content is important to keep your Page from becoming stale or predictable.
People Insights
In People Insights, you can really get to know your fans. The three displays of data here show the age, gender, location, and language spoken by your fans, the people that have been reached by your posts in the last 28 days, and the people who have engaged with your posts in the last 28 days by liking, commenting, or sharing your content. This information is not new to Facebook Insights but, paired with other cues now available in the data, you can better tailor content to your actual audience demographics. This can also be extremely valuable information to keep in mind as you promote posts or run ads on Facebook.
If you want to reach more fans, target people who are like your current fans with the kind of content that is currently working. If you want to engage with more people, promote your content to people who are most likely to like, comment, or share it when they see it. Conversely, if you want to reach a different age, gender, or other demographic, use this information to help alter and test new content to appeal to a different audience.
so Much Data but You Have So Little Time
Even in this brief article, I could not possibly cover all the valuable data that you can find in the updated Facebook Insights. If I could, you wouldn’t have time to read it! But it will be well worth a little of your time to become more familiar with the data available from Facebook Insights. This update makes it much easier for you to find and understand valuable data to create content that resonates with your fans.
