Facebook Insights - A Beginner's Guide

Do you have a Facebook Fan Page? Or thinking about creating one? Then Facebook insights is a fantastic tool for analysing how people engage with the content you publish.

Checking Facebook has become part of a daily routine for a lot of folk. This has created a huge opportunity for marketers to connect with their audience.

Once you have a Facebook page for your business you obviously you want to know how successful it is becoming and who you are engaging with, which is why we have created a Facebook Insights Beginner's Guide.

Facebook Insights Data

There are two types of Facebook Insights;

• User Insights - including the total number of page Likes, number of fans, active users per day, sources for Likes, demographics ( mentioned previously ), page views, media consumption and external referrers.

• Interactions Insights - including daily story feedback on post Likes, post comments and post impressions, also daily page activity on mentions, discussions, reviews, wall posts and video posts.

It's really up to you what you would like to know using Facebook Insights. Once determined you can sort through the data and pick out the parts which are important to your marketing plans.

Most Important Data

As a general rule of thumb we would suggest paying attention to the following Facebook Insights.

• Growth of Monthly Fans - It could be useful to record the number of fans you have per month so you can see what's going on. If you notice that your fans are dropping or indeed growing you can try to identify the factors of cause via the Insight data. Perhaps your recent posts were / weren't well received ?

• Rate of Unlikes - It's a fact that there will always be people who are unsubscribing, it doesn't matter how great your page or content is, it will always happen.

• Likes and Comments average Rate - These both measure your engagement with the audience. Knowing the average number of people who are engaging with your content can tell you if what you publish is appealing to your audience or deterring them. Publishing more content that your audience is more likely to be interested in will get you some great results.

• Page Views - This is a really useful insight, you can view how many view your Facebook Page within a date range that you specify. Keep an eye on the graph, and perhaps you will see a link between the number of page views and unique page views.

• Demographics - Do you want to know the age and gender of your fans? Of course you do, demographics like these can come in handy when marketing your products or services. You can even find out where your fans are from!

Further Analysis of your Data

Using Facebook Insights to see - How many fans are leaving your page?

As mentioned previously, it is normal for you to have some fans that unsubscribe, however it is useful if you can keep track of what's going on. Here is a calculation by which you can see how many fans are leaving your site.

Daily Unlikes / Daily Fan count = Number of Fans Leaving your Site

Using Facebook Insights to see- How many fans are coming back to your page?

It could also be very useful to know how many fans are returning to your page. In this instance you can use the following calculation using the data from page views;

Number of Page Views - Number of Unique Page Views = Number of Returning Fans

Talking about this - what does it mean?

Talking about this is another insight that some get confused with. You can find it directly beneath the 'number of fans' data, it is also visible to everyone who visits the page. It's normal for this number to be significantly less than your overall number of fans, probably around 4-6%.

It is basically the number of unique users who have gone and created stories about your page within their own Facebook stream. They can do this by liking, commenting, sharing or tagging your page/ post/ photo. The data works on a 7 day rotation period, so the percentage will change daily.

Facebook Insights Summary

Facebook Insights are always changing so it is important to monitor it on a regular basis in order to re-evaluate your marketing strategy. Why not keep a record of your Facebook Insight data by downloading it from Facebook or by noting down certain insights on spreadsheet to further analyse data.

Pleas don't hesitate to reference our Social Media Marketing Page for further information, or alternatively, give us a call to discuss the opportunities for your business to grow online through Social Media