For small businesses, having a Facebook Fanpage or simply a ‘Facebook Page‘ (which should not to be confused with a personal ‘Facebook Profile’) can be a great asset in your marketing efforts. Here’s how: When someone ‘likes’ your Facebook Page and becomes a ‘fan,’ it shows up in their news feed and you’ve just expanded your marketing reach through that person’s social network. When other people within that fan’s social network subsequently ‘likes’ your Facebook Page, your marketing reach is further increased. The beauty of Facebook (as the largest social networking site with over 500 million users) is that your marketing reach isn’t just confined to the physical location of your business, but expanded exponentially on the internet through Facebook. The marketing potential and subsequent page conversions is limited only by your creativity and ability to effectively use Facebook.
But availing a Facebook Page without any sort of metrics is like navigating a ship in the dark. Enter Facebook Insights, the lighthouse that will effectively measure your progress with empirical data. Here, we will discuss how small businesses can get the most out of Facebook by use of Facebook Insights.
Facebook Insights Overview
First the basics. Facebook Insights will only be activated once you’ve had 30 ‘likes’ on your Page, which will automatically appear on the left side. Click ‘See All’ under ‘Insights’ and you will be brought to the Facebook Insights dashboard with two graphs that summarize two important metrics – one for ‘Users’ and the other ‘Interactions’.
‘Users’ measures monthly active users, daily and total ‘likes’ and ‘unlikes’, ‘like’ sources, their demographics, media consumption, external referrers, and page and tab views. In summary, as the name implies, ‘Users’ is the domain of users on your Page.
‘Interactions’ tracks daily post views and feedback, daily story feedback, recent posts, and daily page activity.
Now that we’ve gotten a rundown of the basics, here are frequent scenarios that small businesses are sure to run into.
Are ‘Likes’ Enough
So you’ve started your Page and have 100 ‘likes,’ and you feel good about your business’s Facebook debut. It doesn’t stop here. Here are metrics you should look into expanding.
Daily Active Users (top of main dashboard): Active Users are the opposite of Passive Users that ‘like’ your Page and never return. Daily Active Users continually return to your Page to consume its content – you should focus on increasing by posting engaging content.
Daily Page Activity (bottom of Interactions): This measures your followers’ level of engagement, particularly the number of mentions your Page is receiving. When a fan mentions your Page, that fan is broadcasting your business to their network, which is effective marketing with minimal effort or business risk.
Daily Story Feedback (top of Interaction): Whenever a fan ‘likes’ your Page, it shows up here. Use this metric to see what content you’re posting that’s engaging you followers; and when (such as time of day or day of week) your followers are most active – post engaging content when your followers are likely to be receptive to it.
Spikes in ‘likes’ and ‘unlikes’ (top of Users): A spike in the line graph in either direction – either ‘like’ or ‘unlike’ – is worth investigating. You can sort through your content by day to see what elicited that reaction from followers and decided whether to continue or cease posting that sort of content.
Producing Content Followers Want
Produce content that keep your followers engaged in order to maintain their social network within your marketing reach.
Most Recent Posts (middle of Interactions): Save time by publishing content that your followers want. This metric will let you sort through recent content by ‘impressions’ to see how many people are seeing a post on your Page, on a news feed, or follower’s profile. You can also sort through feedback percentage to see which posts are garnering the most attention.
Media Consumption (bottom of Users): Users respond well to video, audio, and photos, but they’re time-consuming to produce for businesses. This metrics lets you see which media posts are getting the most views so you can focus your efforts on producing these types of media.
Daily Story Feedback (top of Interactions): This metrics lets you see if there is a spike in comments or ‘likes’ for a particular day. If so, it might indicate a topic of interest among your followers.
Tab Views (bottom of Users): It wouldn’t make sense to keep producing content on one tab of your Page when another tab is attracting more activity with users – focus on the tab with the most activity.
Outside of Facebook
You’ve invested your time developing your web presence. You’ve added ‘like’ buttons on your business website and emails. Now you want to know, rightfully so, what worked and what didn’t.
External Referrers (bottom of Users): This shows top external domains that visitors are finding your Facebook Page so you can revamp your approach to the not so successful ones. If you’re driving traffic to your Page from you website, then you know you’re doing something on your website that’s attracting visitors.
‘Like’ Sources (top right of Users): Many of your ‘likes’ might probably be coming from you Page, but you should also see where else you’re collecting ‘likes’. It could be from your website, or from your latest email marketing campaign.
Insights on an External Domain: Go to facebook.com/insights and click on the ‘Insights for your Domain’ box. You can easily copy a bit of code and link your website to your Page, which will allow you to see what content on your website are getting a lot of ‘likes’ on Facebook.
Web Analytics: Don’t neglect other web analytics, such as Google Analytics. Ideally, you want your Facebook Page to drive traffic to your website (and maximize conversions), which should show up as a referring source in your web analytics.
Reaching the Right People
Demographics (middle of Users): Does your product cater a younger generation? Is your service better suited for older men and women? How old? Facebook collects personal information from its users, and Facebook Insights will paint a picture of the demographics of your Page. If you’re soliciting activity from a demographic that’s not your targeted audience, consider revamping the content
you publish, how you publish it, and which external domains you’re publishing on.
Conclusion
Facebook Insights is a powerful aide to developing your business’s online presence and measuring online campaigns. It should not be mistaken, though, as the silver bullet to business marketing and entrepreneurial uncertainty. Leverage Facebook Insights for your small business. See what works and what doesn’t and adjust; and your business will certainly get the most out of Facebook.
Written By: Jaszver Bauzon
