Friday, August 16, 2013

Insights – Getting the Most from the Post


Facebook Insights, located in your left side bar, is the statistical data you need to get the most out of your page.  This is a guide to using that data to improve your Edgerank and your online business.

Insights Tab

The Insights Tab features a graph and statistical data on each individual post. 

The graph tells you:

  • How many posts were made on each day (which can serve as a quick reference when diagnosing “unlikes”),
  • Talking About This score – calculated on a weekly rolling basis and displayed by day.  This is how many people have created a “story” about your page – that is, had some interaction with it.
  • Weekly total reach – The total number of people who have seen any content about your page – again, calculated over a week but displayed daily. 

The Post Stats Tell You:

Reach – The number of unique viewers the post had.  This can play a part in determining what time of day you should post.  If this score is much lower than your “liker count” then you need to work on your Edgerank score. 

Engaged Users – The number of people who clicked the post when it showed up in their news feed.  If you click on the number, it will tell you how many of those “clickers” became engaged (that is, took further action of some sort eg liking, commenting, answering a question etc) and also “other clicks” which are clicks that are not included in other metrics (clicking on the time stamp for example, takes the user to the permalink for the post which allows people to tag individual posts on your page – this is very deep engagement)

Talking About This – Clicking on the number tells you what kind of interaction the user had.

Virality – This is the percentage of people who saw the post that actually took some kind of action.  Click Virality to put the posts in order of popularity and check which posts had the best scores.  Look for patterns in time and day posted, topic, benefit to the reader – when you find a pattern, you’ll know better when and what to post on your page for maximum success.


Likes Tab

Here you’ll find all the stats on your likers.  Use this info to keep your posts relevant – for example, a page with 92% female likers may not share your passion for monster trucks (unless it’s the Women of Monster Truck Appreciation Society). 

The Like Source section can help you trace actions that brought new likers to your page (were you tagged by another page on a particular day?  Did you post something that received a lot of shares?) and also days when you lost a lot of likers.  Review days with spikes in your unlike score – did you post too often?  Was something in your content offensive? 

Like Sources – This apparently indicates where the new liker found you however, there is inadequate information available for this to be really useful.  For example, if a user clicked through to your page from an external website or found your page through Google, it is not listed here.  This should be used as a rough guide only.  The “Old Insights” link on the right side bar offers better information on this.

Reach Tab

This tab is all about how far your page’s messages are travelling.  In addition to the statistical data about those reached there are some interesting stats:

Reach:  This shows how people saw content from your page (and how many people saw it).  A high viral score means that users engaged with your site are sharing with their friends.  A high organic score (calculated per week, not per day) means that lots of users saw your page in their own time lines. In an ideal world, your organic score will reflect your number of likers, but it’s unlikely that it does.  Paid refers to your Facebook ads.  Generally your viral score will fluctuate a lot depending on who is tagging you but your organic score should stay fairly level.  If you see a big drop off in organic reach, it means that you need to lift your user engagement as Facebook is devaluing your Edgerank score. 


Unique Users by Frequency:   This tells you how many people saw your content and how many times they saw content from you in a week.  This data can help you to understand how frequently you’re showing up in your liker’s news feeds.  People seeing information about you just once probably are not likers of your page. They may be seeing you on other pages, in shout out tags or on friend’s walls.  Those seeing you 21 times however are your good old, trusted likers!  If they’re seeing almost all your posts, you can determine that they are always on Facebook.  If you’re reaching people just a few times a week even though you post more frequently, chances are some of your posts are being devalued by Edgerank and casual Facebook users are missing them.

Page Views:  As the name suggests, this is the number of times your page is viewed daily.  A very high blue score compared to your yellow score means that you have some very loyal fans who visit a lot, a high yellow score means you have a variety of people visiting your page.  If your yellow score is close to your blue score, you should be finding ways to keep people interested and coming back.

Total Tab Views: If you’ve added other applications to the page, this section may help you to see which pages are working hardest.  If you have a very visual product, your photos tab should be getting plenty of views.  Use this data to see where your likers are going. For example, if they’re visiting your page looking for information, you can build more informative tabs to keep them happy.

External Referrers: This should be a long, diverse and star studded list. If this is blank, it’s time to start marketing yourself.  Link to your Facebook page from your own website, include it in your contact details in directories, forums, your email signature and on any online marketing that you do. Did you know you can optimise you page for Google too?  Google doesn’t see Facebook very well but being the number two site on earth, Facebook pages do have some weight behind it.  Your page name will play a big part in how well you’re found so if it’s not too late – name it with keywords!

Talking About This Tab

In addition to the statistical data about users, the Talking About This tab offers a more in depth view of how people are sharing your information.

Talking About This: Click the Page Likes button to drop down a menu of all the different kinds of interactions over a rolling week long period.  Some interactions are more valuable than others – tagging themselves in a photo for example, show’s that interaction to all of their friends.  Use this section to understand how your likers enjoy interacting and to see where you can “nudge” them to interact more.

Viral Reach:  This indicates how many people saw you “recommended” by others – if you were tagged by a fan or friend, then your site will see a spike in your score here that indicates the number of people who saw their post.  This is why the humble “shout out” is still a very important tool in Facebook marketing!


Insights is the most overlooked element in Facebook marketing.  While it’s not as useful as Google Analytics, it still serves as a handy guide for achieving what can seem completely random to some users!



Dana Flannery is a Website Marketing specialising in Facebook Marketing. Check out her most recent project at Pet Sitting Brisbane.

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