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How do you measure the success of your Facebook page? We look at the number of Followers, we look at the number of comments and the number of views per post. But social media marketing is more encompassing than that. It’s about connections and reviews, it’s about creating buzz that travels from your customer to their friends and out to their friends and so on.
Facebook is making an attempt to quantify these connections with new metrics for Pages. Once the product is launched, you’ll find these new details on the Insights tab which is open to any admin on a Fan Page.
The first new metric is currently being called “People Are Talking About This.” A long label, but it really speaks to whole idea behind social media marketing. This number represents an accounting of all user-initiated activity related to your company’s Page. It counts wall posts, comments, likes, shares, check-ins, photo tags, recommendations, etc.
Pretty ambitious, but if it works, it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing the real value of a Facebook Page.
Next we have “Friends of Fans” and “Weekly Total Reach.” Both of these numbers attempt to quantify how far your brand name has gone, beyond the page itself.
In addition to providing these numbers for your brand Page as a whole, they’re also launching page level data going back 500 posts. Here you’ll see potential reach, number of engaged users and number of people talking about the post. Then, Facebook does the math for you, by applying a “Virality” score which is the number of people talking, divided by all the people who saw it, to determine how “viral” the post is.
 Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information. |
Here’s the thing. With complex algorithms behind each of these columns, you’re never going to understand exactly where each number comes from. The reality is, you don’t need to understand. What you need is regular data over a period of time. When the numbers rise, then you’re doing something right. When the numbers drop, you’re off track. It’s (almost) that simple. Sure, you have to allow for changes of season and natural disasters and all encompassing fascinations with the latest trends, but the more data you have, the more patterns will emerge and that’s what you need in order to plan your attack.
Watch for the new Insights program to hit your Page sometime in the next few weeks.
