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How to use Facebook Insights

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Do you have a Facebook Fan Page for your business?  Are you making the most of your Facebook Insights? (If you don’t yet have a Facebook Fan Page, check out my article here on how to set one up)

Facebook Insights provides Facebook page owners and platform developers with metrics around their content. You can only view this information if you are an administrator of your Facebook Fan Page.

By understanding and analysing trends within user growth, demographics, and consumption and creation of content, you are well armed to enhance your business with Facebook.

Knowing the profile of your target audience is hugely important. Facebook Insights provides essential information that can help you to improve quality engagement and better understand the core audience that your page attracts.

Facebook Insights are not just a load of useless numbers. It offers valuable information providing real insight of your customers. Regularly monitoring the metrics helps you to assess the size and impact of engagement from the content and discussions made on your page. You can choose the duration period you want to view the metrics. From analysing the data, you can decide which content works best, who you are reaching, and where you can improve. So it is a very practical business tool.

What can I find out from Facebook Insights?

  • Total Likes - The number of people who have “liked” your page.
  • Friends of Fans - Your potential reach of the friends of people who have “liked” your page.
  • People Talking About This - The number of unique people that have created a story using the pages content e.g. comments, likes, tagging etc.
  • Weekly Total Reach – The week’s total amount of people who have seen associated content regarding your page.
  • Virality - How likely a person is to share something about your posts with their friends. It measures the % of people who have created a “story” from your content by sharing it with others. It also measures the types of posts your audience responds to and shares.
  • Who’s Talking About This - Find out demographics and locations of people who have “liked” your page.
  • Negative feedback on posts – The number of users either hiding their posts or giving negative feedback in news feeds. This helps you work out what kind of content best resonates best with your customers, so you can improve your page posting strategy in the long-term.

Some of the above metrics are new and have only recently been added. Facebook continually make changes and are constantly further enhancing the Insights tool.

Below is an image from my Facebook Fan Page – How to do Internet Marketing The Right Way

 

Other useful features of Facebook Insights

  • Insights Overview - Want to see your overall impact and reach and how his has changed over time? Want to know who is talking about your page? Want to see all this in a useful graphical summary?
  • You can export your Facebook Insights data quickly and easily into an Excel file.

How should you use Facebook Insights?

Analysing the information provided by Facebook Insights is essential. Keeping up to date with any changes that occur to your page is also key. So you need to regularly monitor the page and watch out for fluctuations as the data is constantly changing. Combining insights from your Facebook page with your overall marketing data will help you capture the appropriate audience for your business.

If you need any assistance in setting up your Facebook Fan Page or want to understand how you can leverage Facebook better for your business contact me here.

 

Do you have a Fan Page?  Are you monitoring your Insights page?  Please do leave a comment and feel free to share your Facebook Fan Page too:)

Lilach

Lilach

Founder at Socialable Ltd
Lilach Bullock is passionate about getting tangible results using social media. Listed in Forbes as one of the top 20 women social media power influencers. She's the co-author of "Images that Influence" (Number One in its category on Amazon). Lilach is consulted by journalists and regularly quoted in newspapers on social media related matters, including (Forbes, Social Media Today, Prima Magazine, The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 5 Live ). A keynote speaker at business and marketing seminars. If you want excellent results, more business and better visibility you can can subscribe to Socialable newsletter here.
Lilach

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by Lilach | Type: Standard
Filed Under: Facebook, Social Media Marketing

56 Responses to How to use Facebook Insights

  1. Dan Knowlson (Elements for Life) says:
    December 16, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    I had been wondering what to do with FB Insights. Now I know, so big thanks Lilach.

    Reply
  2. LuSundra Everett says:
    December 16, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    This is great information. I’m bookmarking this for reference. I just really started looking at the insights. I appreciate the knowledge!
    LuSundra Everett recently posted..How To Build Your Network Marketing Business On FacebookMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Amanda Ball says:
    December 16, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Really useful overview of the new insights Lilach, thank you. I hadn’t spotted the negative feedback section so I’ll check that out! Which would you say is the most important metric?

    Thanks again, Amanda

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 16, 2011 at 2:16 pm

      Thanks Amanda, my pleasure – please do share your Fan Page too if you have one.

      The most important metric – hmmm tricky one, I guess it’s between my total reach and how many people talking about it. People are obsessed with numbers of likes, but in reality it doesn’t mean anything. If you have 10,000 likes but no one is talking about your page… well what’s the point?!!
      Twitter:

      Reply
  4. Amy Jo Neal says:
    December 16, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Oh my! This is awesome. Thank you thank you! Now I know what all that stuff actually means. LOL. You rock!
    Amy Jo Neal recently posted..MLM Leader? The Truth About My Recovery From Almost Guru-hoodMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Angelika Davey says:
    December 16, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    I have looked at the insights for https://www.facebook.com/angelikasgerman before but your post reminded me that, maybe, I should check them out more often. Thanks, Lilach!
    Angelika Davey recently posted..In Dulci JubiloMy Profile

    Reply
  6. Val Heisey says:
    December 17, 2011 at 12:53 am

    Great information Lilach, I always appreciate all you have to share with us. My FB page is http://www.facebook.com/valheiseylive

    It’s quite new, and all that is showing up are links to my blog. Only 4 followers so far.
    Twitter:

    Reply
  7. Preston Schumacher says:
    December 17, 2011 at 1:54 am

    Interesting… I didn’t know facebook insights monitors “negative feedback” too. Thanks for the breakdown:)
    Preston Schumacher recently posted..Inspirational Song Lyrics… An Inspirational Song Venturing into Different Musical LandscapesMy Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply

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  9. Clive Roach says:
    December 19, 2011 at 9:45 am

    Good post, I also noticed the changes. What I wanted to add was the effect of advertising using the Facebook ads. This has a HUGE effect to the Weekly reach and People talking about figures. This will lead to an increase in LIKES if and only if your target settings and ad content is tuned.

    My facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaJedi
    Clive Roach recently posted..Getting Started With Social Media [Slideshow]My Profile

    Reply
  10. Srinivas Reddy says:
    December 22, 2011 at 12:53 am

    Thanks for this social media education, Lilach. I remember poking around facebook once, stumbling upon my Insights data, then closing it promptly to go reach for a beer. :) I’m new to social marketing and have much to get a handle on. And you, my dear, do a fabulous job of holding all our social-media-newbie hands. Online or offline, I think it all comes down to understanding and connecting with your target audience. For online socializing, it’s amazing that there are tools like this available for us to use. If one is ready and willing, the sky’s the limit.

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 22, 2011 at 11:19 am

      Thanks Srinivas, appreciate your comment:) Instead of shutting down your data, reach for your bear AND read it lol.

      The scary thing is that we all live in a world obsessed with social media and yet people get turned off by the tools to measure whether it’s actually working… I guess it’s not very sexy lol

      I agree though with your “the sky’s the limit”. More and more tools are becoming available on a daily basis, the current tools are evolving and whilst it’s great as it means it’s getting easier there is also a case of information overload which does put off people too.
      Twitter:

      Reply
  11. David Sharp says:
    December 22, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    Very useful post Lilach thanks a lot, I will have to start and take note of ‘insights’ now I know about them.
    David Sharp recently posted..List Building For Your Small Home BusinessMy Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
  12. Juli Becker says:
    December 22, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    Lilach,

    I think the most interesting thing about FB Insights is the ‘Who’s Talking About This?’ portion. I’ve heard people comment on the Internet about thinking that a particular Fan Page was so popular, then they saw that very few were ‘talking’ about it. And I personally have had the experience where as many as 35% of my fans were talking about my page at one time because of just one post I published, then weeks later (like now) only 2 people are engaging with my Page.

    It’s definitely a fluid metrics system and those who utilize it’s information to best optimize the information they are sharing with their fans will be able to highly maximize and improve their stats, giving them more credibility as an expert.

    Here’s the link to my FB Fan Page: Juli Becker Fan Page. If you happen to visit and/or like my page, you will see that there is a lot of room for improvement! (It’s on my list. :) )

    Thank you again for the inspiring post!
    Juli
    Juli Becker recently posted..How the Veteran Marketer can ROCK the Empower NetworkMy Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 22, 2011 at 9:36 pm

      Thanks Julie, I agree, this is such a great tool and more importantly it’s open and available to everyone. So if people pay to get 1000′s of fans and no one is talking about their FB fan page we can see that:)

      As you say, the numbers people talking about it fluctuates, the key to keeping it consistent is to post to your page daily with new blogs or share useful tips/sites etc. that keeps momentum going and gets the opportunity to start building relationships with your “fans” too.
      Twitter:

      Reply
  13. Juli Becker says:
    December 22, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    Lol! I tried using the linking technique that Christy Itamoto taught us in her post: http://christyitamoto.com/how-to-add-a-hyperlink-to-your-facebook-note/, but it didn’t work! I’ll have to practice more at perfecting that…Here’s the true link to my FB Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/julibecker1. :) Thank you!
    Juli Becker recently posted..Network Marketing And Our Youth (Part 1)My Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
  14. Stacy says:
    December 22, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    Hi Lilach,

    I didn’t realize that we can do so much with the facebook insights! That really is useful information, especially on how we can use it to better reach our fans.

    Thanks!
    Stacy
    Stacy recently posted..4 Steps To Getting More Opt-Ins For Your BusinessMy Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
  15. Lou Barba says:
    December 26, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    Hi Lilach,

    You have presented something here that I didn’t know existed. Since my Facebook page is pretty much dead in the water, I probably should take a look at using their insights. Hopefully, using this will bring more followers and traffic. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

    Lou
    Lou Barba recently posted..The Wheels on the BusMy Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 27, 2011 at 5:09 pm

      Thanks Lou, my pleasure:) Well the New Year is approaching and it’s time to resurrect your FB page – feel free to share it here too, hopefully that will generate some interest and likes too:)
      Twitter:

      Reply
  16. Tosin says:
    December 28, 2011 at 11:30 am

    Hi Lilach,

    Facebook insights is definitely cool. I use them from time to time and it’s amazing

    how much can be gained for improving business simply by looking them up the right

    way.

    Thanks for pointing people who didnt know about the great benefit of facebook

    insights and much appreciation for reminding me.

    Tosin
    Tosin recently posted..Top MLM Blogs to Look Forward to in 2012My Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 28, 2011 at 1:09 pm

      Thanks Tosin:) Yes I love checking them out, you can learn so much from them and it just highlights how much it’s not about how many likes you have but the interaction and how many people are talking about your page
      Twitter:

      Reply
  17. Kostas says:
    December 29, 2011 at 8:46 am

    Hi Lilach,
    Facebook imporove their page insights but in my opinion it’s not good enough in comparison with google analytics, they should track more stats in order to make the page’s administrators understant better what their visitors want, anyway thanks for sharing…
    Kostas recently posted..Facebook vs. Google: Which is the Most Effective Tool for AdvertisingMy Profile

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 29, 2011 at 11:03 am

      Thanks Kostas:) Yes I have to agree with you to some extent. Google are the “daddy” of the analytics however I am still finding the Facebook Insights useful and am seeing them develop new features within there. Let’s hope they continue to provide new and better insights:)
      Twitter:

      Reply
  18. garnet nagy says:
    December 30, 2011 at 2:55 am

    I’m not sure if this should be about facebook insights or “Lilach Bullock’s insights”.. You always have such great stuff to share! :)

    My FB fan page: http://www.facebook.com/Kooiiicom1?sk=wall Any & all thoughts or insights appreciated!

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      December 30, 2011 at 7:28 pm

      Thanks so much Garnet for your great comment:)

      I liked your Facebook fan page. I would recommend having a welcome page, it’s a good way to encourage people to get likes and also if you have a gift with an optin is another great way to build that all important list:)
      Twitter:

      Reply
  19. Easther says:
    December 30, 2011 at 11:31 am

    Hi Lilach
    I’ve been wondering how to use facebook insight. Now i know, I am gonna go and have a look at mine now..

    thanks Lilach for sharing..
    Twitter:

    Reply
  20. Marc Joss says:
    January 1, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    Hi Lilach,
    I am the co-founder of http://www.rateyournandos.com and take care of our Facebook Fan Page (https://www.facebook.com/RateYourNandos) and have been trying to find ways to use expand our fan base (currently just over 2,100 fans) and make the most of our Fan Page so this article is just what I was looking for!
    I do look at the statistics regularly but am unsure about what to actually do with them in terms of improving the page. 1 important point is getting people onto the actual website and writing reviews. If you have any advice, that would be much appreciated. I know we don’t have a welcome page at the moment but that is in the pipeline!
    Thanks again and Happy New Year,
    Marc
    Twitter:

    Reply
  21. Joyce says:
    January 9, 2012 at 1:04 am

    Even though am not new to Facebook. I have not really used this feature. Thanks for sharing this insightful feature. I;m going to start using it from now on. I can definitely help my grow my fans fast.

    Thanks for sharing, this is definitely beneficial.

    Reply
  22. Alan Cheng says:
    January 11, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    Hi Lilach,

    Thanks for sharing the info about Facebook Insights. I looked into that several months ago. Your post got me to take another look.

    I agree that it’s not as good as Analytics (at the moment). But it’s still worthwhile to check it out if you use Fanpages a lot.

    With Facebook’s progress, it won’t surprise me that Facebook Insights will become much better in time.
    Alan Cheng recently posted..Blog Crashes – Posts and Pages DisappearMy Profile
    Twitter:

    Reply
    • Lilach says:
      January 11, 2012 at 2:41 pm

      Thanks Alan:) I agree I’m pretty sure Facebook will be changing and improving the current insights. I’m looking forward to seeing how this progresses, particularly as Facebook is likely to go public this year.
      Twitter:

      Reply
  23. Charlotte says:
    February 12, 2012 at 10:33 am

    As always really useful insight into the stats. Thnkyou
    Have you written anything or do you have advice on how one can raise the number of ‘likers’for the Facebook business page?
    Twitter:

    Reply
  24. Ian Said says:
    May 12, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    Hi Lilach,

    Great article. I use FB insights constantly. Always curious as to how a post performs.
    What do you think of Edgerankchecker? Worth spending the money as opposed to the free version?

    My facebook fan page is https://www.facebook.com/IdealSoftware

    Please drop by and take a look. Any pointers as to improvements much appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Ian
    Owner, idealsoftware.co.za
    Twitter:

    Reply

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  28. Linda K Sienkiewicz says:
    September 2, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    Thanks for the insights into insights!

    A good way to keep interest with fans is to hold giveaways and contests, and also to ask questions.

    https://www.facebook.com/RokkiHandbags

    Reply

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