As a smart small business owner, you likely have a Facebook page. But are people commenting on your posts by “liking” or sharing them? If not, remember that social media is meant to be just that: social. It’s not about creating a page and immediately trying to get 100,000 random users to “like” it. It’s about a conversation; it’s about engagement.
Luckily, Facebook offers a great tool with their “Insights,” giving Facebook Page owners invaluable metrics and graphs around their content. These Insights allow you to understand and analyze trends among and about your users, track user growth, and consumption of – and engagement with — content. All of these numbers can help you improve your business and better understand your fans.
To view Insights, go to your Facebook Page and then go to the sidebar on the left, under your profile picture. Click on the Insights link. Once you get there, check out the following ways you can use Insights to grow your fans:
Find Out What Works. And Keep Doing it.
Click on Main Insights and you’ll see a large graph that details your – and your fans—activity for the last month. You’ll see how much your total likes have gone up or down, how and when you posted, and how many people are “talking about” (liking or sharing) your posts. If there are terms that you don’t know, hover your mouse over the “?” near the word for a definition.
Notice that you can sort the columns below the graph (reach, engaged users, talking about this, virality) in order from highest to lowest. This allows you to see what works—what posts engaged the most users or caused people to talk about it the most? Did you post a video on those days? Or a photo? Perhaps a link to purchase a product?
Note the trends that work, and keep doing them. (And conversely, stop doing what doesn’t work.)
Keep Them Coming, by Finding Out Where They Came From.
Check out the Reach section of Insights to see the How You Reach People graphs. There is a wealth of information to be gained from this section but note the External Referrers graph to see where your fans are coming from. Did they land on your page by clicking a link from your website? Or a Google search? An ad campaign? Or from other websites, as well?
This graph will give you a greater understanding of where your fans are coming from, so you can understand where you need to improve– perhaps now’s the time to get the word out in different ways.
Get ‘em Talking
In terms of actual engagement, the People Talking About This number – which is public information found on the left sidebar underneath your Likes—is a great benchmark to help you see if you’re actually interacting with your fans. This number, not the total number of likes, is the real number to keep your eye on.
This stat measures anything that created a story about your page. Things like:
- How many people liked your page
- How often someone posted to your wall
- How many people liked, commented on or shared a post, photo, video, etc
- If a fan checked in
- How many people RSVP’d to an event
- If your page was mentioned in a post
- If your page was tagged in a photo
Now, take a look at your People Talking About This graph and see what caused a spike in activity. What got them talking? Was it an annual event that caused a flurry of activity? Perhaps you should consider making the event twice yearly. Or was it a coupon offer that was shared far and wide? Consider what works — and what doesn’t. Take a look at your competition’s pages to see how your page stacks up.
As a small business owner, Facebook Insights provide you with another useful tool to help you monitor your progress, seek areas of improvement or keep doing what’s working. Drop AdMix Social a line to find out how we can help you use your Facebook page to grow your fans.
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