Are you new to Facebook? Do you need to quickly figure out
how Facebook Page Insights work to vow your boss? Need to be able to speak the
Facebook lingo by tomorrow? Whatever the reason, you are at the right place. We
are going to quickly look at what Facebook is, where it came from, and how to
utilize the in depth analytics suite that Facebook offers to individuals and
businesses. This post is also available in Prezi version. The Prezi has narration and is best enjoyed with the sound on.
A Bit About the
History of Facebook
Facebook is currently the largest social network in the
world today with over a billon registered users. That means if every user is
unique then 1 out of every 7 people on this planet is on Facebook. The social media
giant is available in almost every country and connects more people than ever. Facebook
is actually one of the main reasons that the degree of separation between
anyone on the planet has shrunk
from about 6 to 4.74.
If you have seen the movie “The Social Network” you can
generally skip over this part, or read it, up to you. Facebook originally wasn’tthe Facebook that it is today, nor was it designed to be a global tool forconnecting with friends and playing Candy Crush. Facebook had much more humble
origins in the prestigious Harvard University. On Januray 11th, 2004
Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) registered the facebook.com domain. In an
interview with the Harvard Crimson Zuckerberg mentioned that he was inspired to
create the website based on another failed venfture he had attempted prior. At
the very beginning Facebook was only available to students at Harvard
University. The day after the launch of Facebook some 1200-1500 users were
already registered.
As we all know Facebook did not stay contained to the
pristine halls of Harvard but spread across the world. As word of mouth spread,
Facebook was rolled out across universities across America and then finally was
opened for anyone to join. From there it has been a meteoric rise to the Nr.1
social media platform in the world. Since then Facebook acquired several other
prominent social media platforms such as FriendFeed, Instagram, and then
finally in 2012 went public with a much hyped IPO.
How does Facebook
work?
Anyone can sign up and create a profile on Facebook to
connect with friends, groups, or businesses. Once you have your account all set
up you can request to be friends with other people. Once they approve your ‘Friend
Request” you can message each other. You will also receive your friends updates
and posts in your “news feed” as they post through the day. You can also share
your own updates about your life, post links from the internet, create and
share photo albums, as well as include as much, or little, information about
yourself as you wish in your profile.
Facebook Page
Insights a.k.a Analytics
Apart from the traditional user profile individuals and
companies can create two additional types of profiles, Group and Business Page.
There are multiple differences between Business, Group, and Personal pages.
What is important about the Business page is their ability to access Facebook
Page Insights, which provide an in depth view of how your group or page is
doing, which posts are most popular, and how can they be improved.
Facebook recently rolled out the latest iteration of Page
Insights. Apart from changing the look of Insights several features were
deprecated, while others were added. From a personal standpoint I find the new
version an improvement. However the new look is throwing some people for a loop
and if you are new to social media analytics or Page Insights the new version
looks a bit more daunting than before. Have no fear though, we will walk
through each tab and a bit of the Insights export.
The main tabs of Page Insights overall function on a few set
metrics that it displays in relation to other variables. Once you have the
basic grasp of these terms and how they work Insights is a breeze to read. For each tab on the Insights panel I defined a few key terms which are in bold and underlined. There is also a PDF attachment that you can download with the main terms and
meanings for future reference. So, let's jump in.
Page Insights Access and
Admin Panel
REACH –
The number of people who saw your post. This means that your post made it to
the users news feed. This includes both mobile devise as well as desktop. There
is no guarantee that the user read the post, only that they were exposed to it.
Once you are looking at your business page the
Administrators panel and Page Insights button is displayed. The overview in the
Admin panel shows you the latest posts as well as how many people the post
reached, how many people have seen your posts this week, and the change from
last week. To access Page Insights click on the “See All” button in the
Insights box of
Page Insights
Overview Tab
UNIQUE USER
– Facebook generates a large number of metrics. For many of the metrics
Facebook will define something as the number of unique user interactions or
clicks, or whatever else. This means that no matter how many times a user interacted
with a post, they are only one interaction. For example for Reach a user can see
your post multiple times but the Reach metric counts the number of different
(unique) users that saw it, not the total of times the post was seen.
ENGAGEMENT –
The number of unique people who in some way interacted with your post. This can
be a click on the post link, a click on the actual post, a share, or a comment.
POST CLICKS –
The number of people who clicked on your post NOT including likes, comments, or shares. This can be a click on
the link, click to expand the post, or any other click. Page Insights Exports
even tracks if someone hovered their mouse over your post.
The overview view tab gives you general info about the
performance of your pages over the last 7 days. The date range is non-adjustable,
at least for now. Clicking on any of the displayed charts or data will jump you
to one of the other tabs for a more in depth look at the data. The charts on
the overview tab compares the last 7 days to the 7 previous days. Each chart
also compares Likes, Reach, and Engagement with a separate line to illustrate
how the page has been doing.
Page Likes – Page
Likes is a simple metric. It simply compares the rise, or fall, in the number
of users the have “Liked” your page.
Post Reach – Summarizes
how many people were reached over the last week and compares it to the prior
week.
Engagement – Outlines
the engagement with your page over the last week and compares it to the prior
week.
5 Most Recent Posts –
Here you can see the last 5 posts and how they did. Each post is identified
what type (Text, image, link, video, poll), whether it was public, how many
people it reached and how people interacted with it.
Page Insights Likes
Tab
ORGANIC LIKES
– The number of likes gained from posts or the page that were not advertised or
seen as a part of an advertisement.
PAID LIKES
– The number of likes that the page gained from advertising the page or a
specific post.
PAGE SUGGESTIONS
– User liked your page because Facebook suggested your page based on the users
other preferences.
This is a very straightforward page that shows you where
your likes, or unlikes, came from. On this page you can adjust the date range
to compare different epochs. Here you can see whether most users choose to like
your page from your posts, your page, or suggestions made by Facebook.
The first two graphs show the increase of likes for your
page over time and the current number of likes that you have now. There is no
additional data from the first graph. The second graph shows the number of new
likes and Unlikes and breaks them down whether they were organic or paid. The
data range is editable from the selection at the top of the page. You can click
within the graph to receive more detailed information about the specific day
that you are looking at to see the breakdown of news Likes and Unlikes. Are you seeing a dip in Likes or rise in Unlikes?
This could indicate issues with your pages post, whether it is posting too
much, too little, or posting content that is not resonating with your audience.
 |
| Total number of Likes |
 |
| Net Likes |
The final graph on the Likes Tab shows where your likes came
from. There are 5 overall possible sources of Likes.
On Your Page – The total number of people who visited your page and clicked Like.
Page Suggestions –
Facebook suggested your page to a user and they clicked Like.
Mobile – A user
was on a mobile device such as a pad or a phone and Liked your page. You don’t
know whether this was because of a post or on your page. Laptops are considered
mobile.
Your Posts –
Someone saw your post and clicked Like.
API – This is a
like from a Facebook Like button embedded in a website. This can be on your
website or somewhere where you content was shared.
Page Insights Reach
Tab
NEGATIVE ACTIONS
– It is hard for Facebook to determine whether any individual likes or dislikes
a post. On multiple metrics in the Insights exports Facebook mentions negative
actions. Negative actions are when a user unfriends your page (NNNOOOO!!!),
hides the post, or reports it as spam.
The reach tab brakes down the different ways the your page
and posts reached Facebook users. Each of the four graphs breaks down the Reachmetric into different components for better analysis. On each chart you can
select which metric or “Benchmark” you wish to view. You can select one of them
at a time or view all together. The time range is adjustable at the top of the page.
Post Reach – The
Post Reach chart display all the unique Facebook users who saw your page or
posts. The numbers are divided into organic and paid.
Likes, Comments, and
Shares - As the title suggests this graph breaks down the number of likes,
comments, and shares that your posts received. View them all together or one at
a time.
Hide, Report as Spam,
and Unlikes – This graph displays what Facebook terms “negative actions”
against your page and posts. You can see here which posts were most unpopular
and what users did about it. If a specific type of posts consistently receives negative
feedback you may want to reconsider your content strategy.
Total Reach – This
is your total unique user reach. Separate from Post Reach, Total Reach also
takes into account the views after someone shared or liked you, or paid ads.
Page Insights Visits
Tab
The Visits tab displays how Facebook users interacted with
your page and how they got there. You can see exactly what users looked at on
your page, whether they left comments, used any of your offered deals, and
where they came from if they visited your page from outside of Facebook.
Page and Tab Visits –
The graph illustrates what users clicked on while on your page. You can see
how many times looked at your Likes, Photos, Timeline, or anything else. You
can click into the graph and see more any specifics for each day or day range.
Other Page Activity –
Here you can see whether someone interacted with your page. This could be a
check-in if you have a location, any offers purchased, mentions of you on their
posts, or any posts by others if you allow them.
External Referrers – This
is an incredibly important graph. Here you can see if anyone visited your page
from outside of Facebook. You can notice if anyone else is linking to your
page, how much traffic your website is driving to the page, and if there are
any unexpected sources of traffic.
Page Insights Posts Tab
This tab holds one of the major additions to Page Insights,
as well as a major time saver. The first two graphs on this tab show during
which days and what times fans of your page are active. No longer do you have
to create charts and normalize data from Insights Exports to figure this out.
Although there are always best suggested times to post this tab will no
accurately tell you what is the best time to post.
Day – The day
chart displays the activity of your fans by day. If you scroll over the bars it
will show you the times that users are most active on that day. Using that you
can schedule your posts for maximum reach.
Time – These are the local time during which your fans are most active. The times are based on your computers time zone which is important to keep in mind if you operate across multiple time zones. The display in this graph is average across all days of the week.
All Published Posts –
This displays all the information about your post just like in the overview
tab. Unlike in the Overview tab you can see all the posts you have ever posted.
This will also display all the engagement with your posts.
Unlike some of the other tabs, the Posts tab has two
sub-tabs. At the top of the page you can switch between When Your Fans Are
Online sub-tab and Post Type sub-tab. In the Post Type sub-tab each type of
posts success will be summarized. You will be able to see the average reach and
average engagement for every post type that may have ever used.
Page Insights People
Tab
Just like the Posts tab the People tab has several sub –tabs.
The metrics and graphs displayed under each sub-tab are the same, just the
parameters change. The People tab is an overview of the demographics and
locations of the individuals that you have reached.
Demographic breakdown
– The demographics are separated by male and female and into age brackets.
Facebook draws this information from the users profile and only is as accurate
as the user profile itself, however is very close to reality since few people
incorrectly represent their gender or age. You can scroll over each bar for
additional information.
Location breakdown – If
you are a local or national business you can see the people you are engaging.
Here you can understand whether you need to focus your content or widen it so
it appeals to more people. You will also be able to see the langue of the users
which accessed your profile.
Page Insights Export
If you think the 6 tabs contain a lot of information prepare
to have your mind blown. By clicking the export data tab at the top right of
the page you can export both Post level data and Page level data. You can
select the date range for which you want the data as well as the format. I
suggest you export into the Excel format as the CSV combines all the
information into a single Excel sheet which ends up having over a thousand
different columns making it very tedious to read. The explanation of all the
metrics included in the export are beyond any blog post. If you would like to
know more or have any questions about the exports please don’t hesitate to
contact me.
The page level data includes all the imaginable data for
your entire page. This includes number of likes, engagement in every imaginable
format, locations of visit, virality, and literally hundreds of other metrics.
These become a lot more valuable if you are running paid campaigns. All data is
separated by day, week, and 28 day period for each metric.
The post level data contains all data related to each post
you have made. This includes interaction (positive or negative), sources of
likes, times, and yet again hundreds of other metrics. Many of the metrics are
again separated into epochs.
No comments:
Post a Comment