Understanding and Using Your Facebook Insights

So you’ve carefully crafted your social media content, writing thoughtful and engaging posts meant to maximize engagement.  You’ve scheduled your postings to coincide with the times you think you are most likely to catch your target audience on line.  But now what?  Establishing an effective social media campaign requires more than a “fire-and-forget” approach.  The landscape of social media is constantly shifting and changing, and only by adapting to those changes can you hope to keep your brand relevant and competitive.  Facebook insights can provide the analytic tools to help you do exactly that, helping you to monitor your results in real time so that you can achieve optimal results.

Each admin of a Facebook page has access to “insights,” which can be found by clicking the Insights tab in the Menu bar at the top of your page.  At first look, the sheer volume of information available can be a bit overwhelming, but it is important to remember that, even though you may have the ability to track almost any kind of data imaginable, this does not necessarily mean that it is all necessary and relevant to your specific needs.  Take the time to sort through everything that’s there in order to determine which information is the most likely to help further your ability to reach your goals and grow your engagement.  There are basically six ways that Facebook breaks down all of this information:

• Overview: This generalized summary shows how well your page is doing by giving you an abridged look at what other pages elaborate on in more detail. It is a good way to observe major trends and see how the more specialized data interrelates.
• Likes: Not only can you see specifically how many have liked and un-liked your page, but you can also differentiate between organic and paid likes, a great way to determine if your success is a result of effective content or well-spent advertising dollars.
• Reach: Details exactly how many people saw each piece of content you posted, as well as if anyone liked it, clicked on it or shared it – helpful for creating likeable content.
• Visits: Looking at visits reveals how many times people came to your page from a website outside of Facebook, providing insight into both your audience and your influence on other social media platforms.
• Posts: Perhaps the most important area to study, this section can show you a breakdown of the days and times your fans are online as well as interactions (i.e. comments or likes) that your fans have with your posts.
• People: Facebook analytics even allow you to break down the people that like your brand’s page. With information about your audience’s location, age, and gender you can formulate more authentic content that includes the up-to-date information that is most relevant to your audience.

Becoming comfortable looking at and analyzing this data is the first step to tailoring your content to your audience and it can give you a much better idea about where to spend your advertising dollars.  But all this is only the beginning of all the Facebook Insights offers.  For more helpful social marketing tips, or if you’re interested in learning how to effectively take hold of your entire marketing campaign, contact McCauley Marketing Services today. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.