A brief overview of some of the more useful information you can find (and how to interpret it) in Facebook Insights.

1. Deciphering
Facebook Insights
Is virality something you
reach for with your engaged users
who are talking about this?*
*Note, that sentence is not supposed to make sense

2. Disclaimer:
This is not a comprehensive look
at all aspects of Facebook Insights.
There may be more useful tidbits
outside what is presented here
but this is what, in my experience,
I have found to be the most helpful.

3. Getting some Insight

4. Statistics! All the way
across the sky!
STOP

5. Goals before Tools
• Who are you trying to connect with?
• What information do you want to
communicate?
• Why are you using a Facebook page vs
another tool?
• How can your fans find your Page and
its content?
• When will you post and how often?

6. Facebook:
Demographics
Translation:
Who likes you?

7. Start with a baseline
• General US Facebook user stats as of
12.3.2012 (via checkfacebook.com)
30%
25%
46% 20%
54%
15%
10%
5%
female male
0%
13-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Age

8. Find your likes
Nope, don’t need to look at this yet

9. Compare your audience

10. And where they are from
• Does your audience live locally?
• Do you have more than one predominant
language?

11. Who are you talking to?
• Are your gender/age demographics
significantly different than the general
averages?
• Is this who you want to be interacting
with?
• Can you tailor your posts based on
where your main audience lives?
• Is there a new audience for your Page?

12. Facebook:
Reach
*This includes Translation:
anyone (fans, friends
of fans, ad viewers)
who saw any of your
content (posts,
(How) are
comments, photos,
ads) anywhere on
Facebook (News
folks*seeing
your posts?
Feed, on your Page,
Ticker)

13. Didn’t FB just
change this?
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/ http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2012/10/breaking-news-area-school-
facebook_i_want_my_friends_back upset-with-facebook-promoted-posts/

14. Yes...well, not really
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/07/
killing-rumors-with-facts-no-facebook-
• In Sept. 2012 they adjusted didnt-decrease-page-news-feed-reach-
to-sell-more-promoted-posts/
EdgeRank to reduce spam.
• Only the “best” content is
seen by the fans who are most
likely to interact with it.
• Reach percentages haven’t http://mashable.com/2012/11/15/
facebook-conspiring-marketers-to-buy-ads/
changed significantly,
you never got 100% before

15. The solution?
(Continue to) produce
interesting, shareable,
engaging content.
If it’s good, folks will see it
(and share it)

16. The Reach Tab:
Yet another
giant page of
charts and
graphs
And really only one bit
of useful information

17. How did they find you?
Reach Tab:
What folks were looking
at on your Page, and
how they got there
Note for later: Likes Tab:
what post
caused this? Where folks
clicked
“like” for
your Page

18. Facebook:
Virality & Engagement
Translation:
Do they like
your content?

19. Time to examine
your posts

20. Details, details

21. Reach
Number of people
who saw the post
in any format
(fan’s News Feed,
friend’s comment
or like, etc.)

22. Engaged
Users
Number of people
who clicked on
your post or
something in it.

23. Talking
About This
People who shared,
liked or commented
on your post.
Note: This is a breakdown of the “Stories Generated”
referenced in the “Engaged Users” metric

24. Virality
Talking About This
Of the folks
who saw this post, Reach
how many liked it
enough to interact?

25. Figure out what works
• What type of content is most popular?
(Chances are it’s photos and videos)
• Does a topic always generate
interaction?
• Does a topic spur unlikes or spam
tagging?
• Is there a particular time or day of the
week that you get more interaction?

26. Looking back in time
• You can manually export data to an Excel
spreadsheet or CSV in 500 post increments
going back to July 19, 2011

27. Moral of the Story
Interesting Content = Good Insight(s)
• Let the statistics serve as a guide,
don’t live or die by them
• 100 engaged users > 10,000 indifferent fans
• Create posts that people want to share

28. Thank You
• Keep in touch:
@tb623 or @wm_creative on Twitter
tlbroa@wm.edu (or tiffany.beker@wm.edu)
• Official Facebook Guides:
Facebook Page Insights: Product Guide for
Facebook Page owners
Building your presence with Facebook Pages:
A guide for educators

29. Questions to Ask
• Who are you trying to connect with?
• What information do you want to
communicate?
• Why are you using a Facebook page vs
another tool?
• How can your fans find your Page and
its content?
• When will you post and how often?