Where to Start with Facebook Insights
October 28, 2013
Last week I gave a presentation called Introduction to Facebook Insights. Insights can sometimes be overwhelming when you're first learning to use it, so I explained how to start in a few steps:
- Understand metrics terms. Learn what "Reach" and "Engaged" mean. Learn to tell the difference between Page metrics and Post metrics (e.g., Page Likes vs. Post Likes).
- Acknowledge your department's priorities. Without them, you won't know what numbers to look at and report on. Set social media goals aligned with those priorities.
- Find the information in Insights that matches your priorities and goals. Are you interested in getting more female applicants for your program? Export your Insights data and look at the tabs called "Lifetime Likes by Gender and Age" and "Daily Demographics People Talking About This." Are you interested in gathering a more global audience? Look at your top countries and languages.
- Assess your work. How are you doing in these areas? Is one of your priorities to get more traffic to your website, but most of your posts don't mention or link to any page on your website?
- Optimize your content based on the information you've found. Does most of your audience log in to Facebook later in the day, though you are posting in the morning? Do more people click on your photos than on video? Figure out what is working for you and what isn't, and change your tactics accordingly.
