I was intimidated by Facebook Insights when they first rolled out. Where do Google and Facebook get off by using fancy words like “analytics” and “insights”? I’m a sports head. Just call them stats lol. For those in the dark, Insights are metrics for Facebook Fan Pages that gives admins an idea on the demographics of their Facebook fan community. After looking deeper, I found that all of it is pretty simple and easy to understand. If you’re an agency or social media director for a business, you can’t ignore these numbers because these numbers tell you which content catches on with your community.
While on the soon-to-be-old Facebook page layout, single-click the “Insights” button on the left side of the screen. For the new Timeline pages, click the “See All” link in the bottom half of the admin panel. The “Engaged Users” and “Talking About This” are the numbers to pay attention to on the resulting page (reference above screenshot) under “Page Posts”. Track which type of posts (and what they’re about) result in the highest numbers for these metrics.
The rest of this blog post will reference the Insights page layout for the new Timeline pages. On March 30th, all Fan Pages will be switched over to the new layout. On the “Likes” Insights page, you will see graphs for the following: Gender and Age, Countries / Cities / Languages, and Like Sources. These are simple but useful stats. If you know your niche (and I hope you do), these numbers will tell you if you’re engaging the right people.
The “Reach” page goes deeper into the demographics of the people who have come in contact with your content either through one of your fans or on their own. Pay close attention to “Reach” under the “How You Reached People (Reach and Frequency)” heading. This tells you how people are coming in contact with your content. So if you’re shelling out major dough for Facebook ads and people aren’t connecting to your content through paid channels, then you need to analyze why your advertising isn’t working. Is it your ad design? Issues with your call-to-action? Either way, avoid wasting money by paying attention to this.
I don’t see much to mention on the “Who Is Talking About Your Page (Demographics and Location)” page. Fair warning… your page needs to have 30 likes before you’re given access to Insights. Happy measuring!
