Facebook Features, pt. 4: In-Post Analytics on Your Page Wall

This week I’ve decided to do a few posts on some of the newer, or lesser known, features related to Facebook Business pages. In this installment we take a look at Facebook’s new “in-post” insights/analytics, and what they mean for you.

Facebook as a number of analytics that can be important for you as you seek to determine the level of engagement on your page. Now they’ve added yet another level right there on your wall (though only you and other admins can see them). The new “in-post” analytics will let you know a little bit more about how many people are engaging with each post, particularly in relation to the number of people who have been exposed to the post. Initially, these analytics were only available to large pages with 10-thousand or more fans, but now all Facebook business pages have them.

Here is a look at what you might see as you scan down your wall:

Under the status update, you’ll notice two numbers: Impressions and Feedback.

What “Impressions” means on Facebook

Impressions is the base number of people who have had the opportunity to see your post. In other words, every time one of your fans logs on and loads their home page/news feed, if you’re post loads on that page, it will count as an impression. This would also include every time someone actually clicks through to your Facebook page, or if the item is posted in a fan box widget on your website.

Additionally, if you look at your impressions over time, and take note of the day and time of your posts, you’ll get a sense for when people have the best chance of seeing your posts, i.e. when they are logging on most often.

What “Impressions” doesn’t mean on Facebook

It doesn’t mean someone saw your post – Even though someone has had the opportunity to see your post, it doesn’t mean they actually did see it, or even read it. It just means it was there. An impression is merely the chance to see it. Think about it: when you log into Facebook, how much do you actually “see” on your page? And beyond that, if you see it, do you actually read it or pay attention to it?

It doesn’t mean your post even showed up on the screen – Your post might be loading way below the fold on my news feed, and even if I don’t scroll down, it will still count as the impression.

It doesn’t mean a lot of different people saw it – Occasionally you’ll notice that the number of impressions might actually be higher than the number of fans you have on your page. This is because the impressions might be for the same person over and over. Since I’m online and on Facebook a lot, I often hit the refresh button to update what I’m seeing in my newsfeed. So I might be responsible for quite a few of the impressions that show in your in-post insights.

So remember this: the higher the number of your impressions, the better…but take that with a grain of salt. Odds are, only a small percentage of those people probably actually saw and read your post.

What does “Feedback” mean on Facebook

The second number you see there is “Feedback” and is expressed as a percent. Simply it is the number of times anyone has either commented on or liked that particular post divided by the number of impressions. In other words: Comments + Likes/Impressions.

This is a little better number for you than impressions, as it is an indicator of engagement and activity by your fans. So in the example image above, 14 comments/1,178 impressions = 1.19% .

For most of what I’m seeing on various pages, this is an extremely high rate of feedback (which of course is why I chose it). More realistic numbers are well below 1%.

The best way to use this number is to get a feel for what types of posts generate the greater percentage of activity or “Feedback” on your page, and use that as a guide as you continue to maintain your social presence on Facebook.

What “Feedback” doesn’t mean on Facebook

It is not an indicator of the quality of engagement – Engagement and conversation are great, but this only factors in pure numbers. It doesn’t factor in the yahoo who uses your post as a chance to promote his own agenda in a way that isn’t even remotely related to your page or post.

It is not an indicator of overall engagement – Engagement doesn’t always happen on the Facebook page. When I publish my blog posts every morning, they are automatically pushed to my Facebook page, Facebook profile, two Twitter accounts, my LinkedIn account, various LinkedIn groups, an RSS Feed, Email subscribers, and several other pages like Digg or StumbleUpon. In other words, at least for my blog, there could be engagement taking place in quite a few locations, not just my Facebook business page wall.

It is not an indicator of click-throughs or sharing – Only Facebook comments and “likes” are measured. If someone clicks on a link in the post or tries to “share” it…it doesn’t get counted. Hopefully Facebook will add something that measures this.

What you need to know

Analytics will never tell you the value of engagement – Analytics and insights are good. They are important. But they can’t tell you the value of a conversation. It may appear that you are having a lot of engagement, but you can only assess the quality of those conversations by reading them, and following up with more engagement…which is why you are using Social Media in the first place.

Don’t focus just on your social sites – Social Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is a part of your overall customer experience. The results of your social efforts might not be happening just online. Conversations and efforts that begin online may very well be continued offline: in person, on the phone, etc.

Stick to the course – While numbers only tell a little bit of the story, they can be important. Certainly you should continue to grow your fan base on Facebook. Quality is more important than quantity, however the more fans you have, the better your chance at increasing both your impressions and your feedback.

Experiment – When you find something that works in getting people to engage with you, stick with it. Always be looking for new, different, and creative ways of encouraging engagement.

How do you use your Facebook insights and in-post analytics? Any creative suggestions as to how to measure the effectiveness of your Facebook efforts?

Tagged as: analytics, business, engagement, facebook, Facebook features, Facebook insights, linkedin, Social Media, StumbleUpon, Twitter