facebook insights

Much like Google Analytics, Facebook has already expanded the scope of their website’s metrics and analytics abilities to better serve business needs. The first program, called Facebook Page Insights, gives information about the content you share on your Facebook Page, along with other insights that help you track your overall page progress.

Their second program gives you information about your followers, and is called Audience Insights. This amazing tool can show you increasingly detailed data about both your audience and your target audience, such as interests, lifestyles, and demographics. Both of these insight programs can go a long way in helping your business.

What data is available?

Facebook Page Insights is divided into six sections:

1. Overview: basic breakdown of how well your posts have gone over, with total amount of likes per week compared to previous weeks, as well as the reach and stats on your last five posts.

2. Likes: how many people like your page. You can see organic versus paid, and the total number of times your page was liked.

3. Reach: how many people saw your post, whether they engaged or not – and divided between organic versus paid. You can see how many people served activity from your page with mentions, check-ins, and posts in addition to yours. There are charts on further data, including page unlikes or reports of spam.

4. Visits: how many times your page, and additional pages such as photos, were viewed. Also includes the actions people took, and if they came from a link outside Facebook.

5. Posts: gives a breakdown of when your fans are active, the reach of various posts, and interactions such as comments. You can compare stats of your posts with your competitors, or compare various types of your posts against each other.

6. People: breaks down the demographics of your audience, including gender, country and city, and language. Additional data is provided for viewers or engagers within the last 30 days.

How to use these?

These insights can be invaluable for several uses:

Analyze your audience: use the demographics to better understand the basics of who your target audience is, and what they enjoy.

Analyze your posts: see which types of posts receive the most reach and engagement. If one type (photos, status updates, or links) is wildly popular, repeat the success. If something is wildly unpopular, try to minimize those posts.

Boosting posts: if you decide to pay for post ‘boosts’, the data on those becomes important to making future boost decisions. Use the data to hypothesize why certain boosted posts increased viewership: type of post, topic of post, or another factor.

Use the insights pages: while you can download a more thorough analytics report, you are probably better off sticking to the on-screen data. It is less overwhelming, and can get you to the right decision without giving you a headache.

Remember the data is specific. The success that your post finds on Facebook might not be replicated on other social networks; keep that in mind when assessing the data.

Facebook Audience Insights

Facebook Audience Insights lets you choose between three potential audiences: the entirety of Facebook, people connected to your page, or a custom audience made up of your current customers. The insights are divided into the five categories below, along with how you can use them:

1. Demographics: same information as above, but additional information is added, such as education, relationship status, education, job role and household size. Being able to compare your audience with a more specific audience can show you at whom to target your products. It can also show what products will not find an audience – for example, dating apps with an all-married audience.

2. Page Likes: the top pages people in your chosen audience like in different categories. This is helpful for scoping out potential competitors, and better understanding of what topics interest your audience.

3. Location and Language: again, similar to above, but the information is for the group you have chosen – not just connected to your page. This helps if you have campaigns or products targeting specific locations.

4. Facebook Usage: how often your chosen audience connects to Facebook, and on what kind of devices. Again, this helps better understand audience engagement.

5. Purchase activity: shows past purchase activity of your chosen group – are they heavy buyers in a specific industry? Also shows how they shop – online, in store, etc. If you have a brick and mortar store, but see online shopping is king, you might want to look into that option.

The better you know your target market, the better you can campaign. Both of these tools offer powerful insights into your audience. Like all data analytics, they help you better your business – and your marketing strategy.