3 basics of facebook analytics

inc.com />3 Basics of Facebook Analytics
You've got a few mont hs' worth of Facebook activity under your belt. Now's the time to dig into
the data and see what's working.
Courtesy InsideFacebook
You've spent a significant amount of time setting up your business's
Facebook presence and are feeling pretty good about it. You're finding
content to share on a regular basis, and steadily growing your "like"
base beyond just friends and family.
But this isn't the time to start slacking off. In fact, it's now when you're
gaining some momentum that you need to take your Facebook
efforts to the next level.
Now that you've got a few months' worth of activity, you should begin
to look at what kind of content is resonating with your audience and what's not, so you can
become more targeted and efficient with your efforts. This knowledge also is important if you're
thinking about doing some paid Facebook advertising.
1. Analyze Your Content
If you don't already know, Facebook Insights is the platform's free built-in analytics package, and
it's available to Facebook page administrators. Facebook Insights will be your new best friend.
Facebook Insights collects a lot of data about your page, from visits and reach to engagement
and demographics. You can see how each individual piece of content is connecting with your
audience. You can get a snapshot view of how many people have seen each of your posts
("Reach"), clicked on it ("Engaged Users"), commented or liked or shared ("Talking About This"),
and a whole lot more. You can also see how well certain types of content photos, videos, links,
questions, etc perform compared to each other.
So, for example, if you find that a photo of your
pup at company headquarters resulted in a
spike in engagement, you might want to start
having Fido make more regular appearances. If
you tend to get more engagement on
Saturdays and Sundays, save your best content
for the weekend. See what happens with your

analytics.
2. Analyze Your Audience
Who are your "likers"? Are they in their 20s, or 50s? How many "liked" you by clicking on your
page's "like" button, and how many by clicking on an external plugin?
Facebook Insights can tell
you all this, too. These stats
can help you deliver even
more targeted content and
grow your community. If
your audience skews
younger, for example, it
might be okay to sprinkle
some "LOLs" once in awhile in your posts. If a lot of them "like" you through an ext ernal social
plugin, think about where these plugins are (maybe your blog or website?) and consider making the
buttons more prominent.
3. Give Facebook Advertising a Try
Once you've familiarized yourself with Facebook Insights, you
might want to test a small advertising campaign to get more
exposure. There are different advertising options, including ads
and sponsored stories that run on the right-hand side (and are
most effective to get new fans), and promoted posts (which
gets your post in front of more people who already "like" your
page). Learn more about Facebook advertising here.
The great thing about advertising on Facebook (besides the fact
that it's really easy) is that you can target your ad to a specific
audience based on location, gender, age and/or interests. And,
you can start with a small/limited campaign and, based on how
well it's performing, adjust your budget or stop advertising
altogether anytime.
We have a saying here at my online marketing company, VerticalResponse, that I think applies to

most companies: "Always be testing." This should be the case for your Facebook strategy, too.
And Facebook Insights is an amazing tool to help you test, track and refine your efforts.
Have you used Facebook Insight s to track your page's performance? What metrics/numbers are
the most helpful?
Did you enjoy this post? If so, sign up for the free VR Buzz weekly newsletter and check out
the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog.
Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-
service email and event marketing, online surveys, social media, and direct mail solutions.
The company was ranked No. 2,802 on the 2012 Inc. 5000. @janinepopick