I can hear you now, “So you’re telling me that not only do I need to have social media marketing, I need to track each account, too? And there’s an algorithm working against me anyway! That’s just way too much!”
Well, I’m here to let you know that it isn’t too much! It’s important to track your metrics and analytics so that you can actually see and understand the results of your social media marketing. If you’re not tracking these key metrics, you won’t know what’s working (or isn’t working), what content your followers engage with, and more.
Today, I’m breaking down the six Facebook metrics that every business owner should track and understand.
6 Facebook Metrics Every Business Owner Should Track
- Page Likes & Follows
This may seem obvious, but you need to know how many people like your page. You can find this number directly on your Facebook page. You can use the Insights tab to find more detailed information, such as a breakdown of paid and organic likes and your likes over time. This is important to remember: likes do not measure the success of your Facebook page or your social media strategy. They do help you understand the size of your audience on Facebook and as time goes on, that number should increase. - Engagement
Engagement measures the action that is taken on your post. Each time someone likes, loves, laughs, cries, clicks your link, comments on, or shares your post, that is recorded as engagement. You can find the engagement measurement of each post within the Insights tab on your Facebook page. Engagement is arguably the most important metric that you should track. This shows you how people are interacting with your business and your posts. By measuring engagement, you are able to see if your audience likes your content and what type of content they prefer. It’s true, that Facebook uses an algorithm that determines how and which posts are presented to users and when. If your posts receive good engagement, they are more likely to be shown to more people! - Reach
Reach is the number of users who see your content. This number can be more than the number of likes that you have on your page (refer to the algorithm mentioned above). If you decide to boost a post, then you will have paid and organic reach for that post. Once again, head to the Insights tab and go to posts. There you can view the reach for each post, and see details such as paid and organic. It’s important to track your reach because again, this will help you determine the content that your audience likes or doesn’t like and what resonates with them. - Impressions
Impressions measure the number of times that your post was seen. Don’t get this confused with reach, though. For example, the post may have 5 impressions, but a reach of 1. That means that 1 person saw the post 5 times. You can view this on the Insights > Posts page of your Facebook page. You will simply change the drop-down from reach to impressions to see the data. Measuring impressions can help you measure the nature of the post and whether it is “viral.” - When Your Fans Are Online
Maybe you’re just posting when you have free time or when you think of it? Well, in order to help you get the best engagement, reach, and impression, track when your fans are online. Head back to your Insights tab > Posts. This will break down when your fans are online in a bar-style graph, including details of time and days. There’s not a standard, cut-and-dry, blanket best time to post to Facebook; but, you can figure out the best time for your business to post! - Who Your Fans Are
You may be curious if you are reaching your target market on Facebook. You can head to Insights > People and view a variety of demographic information on your Facebook fans. This includes their: gender, age, country, city, and language.
It doesn’t do any good to just measure and track this information if you don’t act on it! You have to pay attention to what your fans like or don’t like, and then adjust your Facebook strategy accordingly! As we’ve heard before, “Give the people what they want!”
It may take some extra time, but when you start tracking these metrics and adjusting your Facebook strategy, you should see an increase in your fans, engagement, and reach. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to chat – send me a message or leave a comment below!
