This video tutorial gives a brief overview of the Facebook Insights dashboard. Analytics are discussed in Chapter 6 and the Social Media Analytics Checklist is a helpful guide to measure the effectiveness of your social media activity.
Facebook offers detailed analytics for professional pages, such as those of journalists and news outlets. Keep in mind, Facebook Insights analytics are not available for personal accounts, making it all the more important to create a professional Facebook page on which you share content (see Chapter 3 for information about setting up a professional page).
The Overview tab gives you the most important data about your page, including new page likes, post reach, and engagement for the time period you choose. From the Overview page, you can dig deeper into the data. For example, select a date range to see if you had more engagement one week versus another or check to see which posts are receiving the most engagement.
Here’s a breakdown of key data on Facebook Insights.
Likes. The Likes section is straightforward. It shows the page’s fan growth, or the number of people who have liked it. Use the date selector to view the number of likes from the last week, month or other time period. As you hover over the graph, you can view the number of likes you had on a particular date.
Reach. Total Reach indicates the total number of people who have seen any content associated with the page. Post Reach indicates the number of people who have seen a particular post. But, how do you know if they’re actually interacting with your content, instead of just viewing and scrolling on? The Engagement portion of this dashboard helps you determine the number of people who liked, shared or commented on your posts.
Page Views. This portion gives you the total number of times your Facebook page was viewed during the time period you select. This is where you can also see the areas of your Facebook page that people visit most, including your timeline, info, and photos tabs. You can also view data about External Referrers, the number of visitors who came to your page from a website other than Facebook. For example, someone may click on a link to your Facebook page that was posted elsewhere, such as in a tweet. You can see the number of external visitors and which sites they came from.
Posts. When should you post to Facebook? The Posts section provides valuable information about when your fans are on Facebook. On the top of this dashboard, you can hover over each day of the week to see when they are most active on Facebook. Which posts are performing the best? Toggle over to Post Types to find out the type of posts that receive the most engagement. For example, those that include photos or videos versus text-only posts. Below this portion, you can view how individual posts are performing. This portion of Insights can help you determine the type of content that is most appealing to your fans.
People. Finally, you’ll find a demographic breakdown of the people who like your page. You can also dig deeper to determine if you’re reaching your target audience. Toggle over to People Reached and People Engaged for detailed data on fans who are viewing and engaging with your content.
Hello! Does Insight only give the demographics of your fans and followers or is it anyone who visits the page? Someone who visited the page but didn’t “like” the page? Thank you!
Thanks for the question. The data is based on anyone who interacts with your page or specific content on it, not just those who “like”/are fans of your page.