A Guide to using Facebook Insights for your business
Most businesses appreciate the importance of social media marketing. However, there is still an element of misunderstanding and misconception.
Some businesses simply ‘fall into’ social media because all their competitors are ‘doing it’. Of course, you do need to have a social media presence if your competition has. You will ultimately miss out and lose out if you don’t.
But you need to do more than just have a presence. You need to measure what you do.
This is where Facebook Insights come in.
Insights help you measure Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on Investment (ROI) is obviously important to businesses. However, it’s notoriously difficult to track when it comes to social media. You need to set appropriate goals for your social media marketing. Too many businesses focus too much on trying to link social media directly with sales, or on the number of followers or likes a page gets.
The problem is that you can only really track sales on social with paid ad campaigns. And, the number of followers you have is a false metric. On its own, it tells you very little.
Facebook Insights is a handy tool that helps you track the interaction your page is getting. It also gives you valuable information about the social media posts that are doing well (or not so well). This means you tweak your social media marketing strategy as you go along, so that you get even better results.
The basics of Facebook Insights
With Insights you’ll be able to find basic information, such as the total number of likes and followers your page has. You can also see the best time of day and best day of the week to post, based on the engagement your content has received. This, in turn, helps you to ascertain which type of content: images, video, links, etcetera is getting the best response.
This means you should be able to post more of the content that does well at the best times to reach your audience.
Measuring reach and engagement
Your reach on Facebook is important as it tracks the number of people who have had your posts appear in their feeds on their screen. Crucially, you can also see how people are responding and engaging with your content. With video content Insights shows you how many people are watching your videos and how long for too.
Drill down for specific and detailed information
Much of the basic information you gain from Facebook analytics is useful on its own. The number of likes, views, clicks you have is a good indicator of what’s working well with your content and what’s not.
However, the real beauty of Insights is that it allows you to drill down and find out specific information. So, as well as seeing how many likes you have you can also see the demographics – age, gender and location.
Facebook Insights in a nutshell
Essentially, Facebook Insights enables your social media marketing to have a real sense of direction and purpose.
With social media, nothing beats consistently creating and sharing great content. It’s the bread and butter of success on social.
But with Insights, you are armed with precise information that can only help you create even better content and have even more success with it.