Kathleen Booth
Ask 10 people how Facebook engagement and accompanying metrics should be interpreted and you’ll get 10 different answers. While it’s easy to get wrapped up in the verbiage and industry standards, there are a few simple metrics that you can measure which will help you improve your marketing.
Facebook Page Insights
Through Page Insights, Facebook offers three distinct metrics on each post:
- Post Reach, which is the number of eyeballs on your post for the last 28 days
- Clicks, which is how many users clicked your post
- Engagement, which is the number of likes, comments and shares on your post
The platform also offers analytics on “Post Types” and “When Your Fans Are Online” to help you determine which types of posts are most appealing to your target audience and which days and times during the week your fans are using Facebook.
While Page Insights is an extremely useful resource, it’s easy to get confused by the vast number of metrics. Here are some tips to help you use the feedback from Page Insights or other reputable social media management tools, such as HootSuite or HubSpot, to boost engagement.
Pay Attention to the Number of Engaged Users
Struggling to get users engaged? Don’t get discouraged. At the end of the day, we’re all competing for the most free eyeballs on our content. Users are still engaging by watching your video or opening the photo, even if they’re not commenting or sharing. And when they view your content, that means it is resonating with them. You can always breathe life back into your posts in an effort to boost engagement by posting updates in the form of questions that require feedback or by asking your fans to “like” the post if they agree with a statement or enjoy a photo.
Examine Trends in Recent Posts
Use either “Post Types” or conduct an independent review. This will help gauge which type of content your fans prefer. Maybe they enjoy hilarious videos, rants or list posts from other sources, like Buzz Feed or PopSugar. Once you’ve determined what makes them tick, adjust your social media content strategy to follow suit. Make sure to also look att what times of day and days of the week your most popular posts are published on. This will help you determine when to post in the future for the maximum impact.
Take a Peek at What’s Going on Around You
Take a cue from the experts. Check out what companies like Lifelock, Charmin and Starbucks are doing with their social media. They’re smart about posts, engage with users and use metrics to decide what they should and shouldn’t continue.
While you shouldn’t get too bogged down by what others are doing, it’s worth assessing the competition based on the following factors:
- Number of fans
- Post engagement
- Nature of feedback (Is it predominantly negative, positive or a healthy combination of both?)
- How they respond to positive feedback or complaints
The idea is to see how the competition is perceived by customers. If they are receiving rave reviews, you’ll want to make note of why and consider implementing some of their strategies in your own business model.
Don’t Ignore Reach
While some posts may boast impressive levels of clicks or engagement through likes and shares, others may excel in the reach area. It’s ideal to have posts that excel across the board, but the ultimate goal is to garner as much publicity as possible and to really connect with your audience. Reach is also a great metric to focus on since the users who view your content are not necessarily your page fans and therefore the greater your reach, the higher the chances of securing new fans.
Post times also have a tremendous impact on reach. If you notice some time frames yield more positive results than others, conduct a test using these windows and the preferred content you discovered earlier. The results will confirm optimal windows of opportunity for increased visibility and engagement for your posts.
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