Once upon a time, if you wanted analytics on the performance of your Facebook page, you had to pay a third party application. Last year, Facebook launched Insights, which have only improved over time. If you manage a Facebook page for business but have never checked out your Insights, you’ll want to take a look. You’ll need to be logged into Facebook as your page in order to view your Insights.
The most basic of Facebook insights is Reach. Reach is the unique number of people that have the opportunity to see your post, meaning it was seen in their news feed. For those people familiar with advertising terms, Reach is not the same as Impressions. Impressions are calculated differently- if you log into Facebook 10 times, it counts all 10 as impressions. Facebook used to give Impressions but now it gives Reach.
For example, more than 14,000 people saw the post on the left. If you hover your cursor over the reach, a graph pops up. This graph demonstrates your organic reach, which is your fans, and viral reach, which includes friends of fans. If you are using Facebook Pages Manager for iPhone, you can view the same insights straight from your phone (shown at right).
Facebook compares your reach for each post to your most popular post. You can click through to see which post was the most popular. This will reveal what type of content is popular with both fans and the Facebook algorithm. Facebook uses an algorithm called Edgerank to determine which content is shown to which fans. That’s right, not all of your fans are seeing your content, even if they are logged into Facebook. Facebook chooses which posts are seen. Photos tend to have the highest Edgerank so try to use photos whenever possible.
In order to see additional Insights, go to your administrative panel. There is an insights graph in the middle of the panel. Click “see all” to get to your Insights. On the Overview page you will see a graph illustrating your daily reach for a 4-week period. Below that is your content, which can be sorted by column. Sort by Reach to see which of your posts reached the most people.
Facebook gives other metrics in addition to Reach, including Engaged Users and Talking About This. Engaged Users is the number of people that engaged with (or clicked on) your content. Talking About This means that someone “created a story” about your post. In real terms, that means they liked it, shared it, or commented on it and Facebook may have shown that activity to their fans.
While you’re in Insights, check out the Reach tab. This tab shows demographics of exactly who you reached. Additionally, you can see your Daily Total Reach, which includes Organic, Viral, and Paid Reach (if you are running advertising). Facebook offers ways to reach more people, through Sponsored Stories and Promoted Posts, but it is important to first understand how many people you are reaching organically (free).
If you need additional help understanding your Insights, give us a call, we’re happy to help!