With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is an exceptionally powerful tool that can help small businesses and schools effectively reach their chosen community. While you’re probably already using Facebook as a part of your social media marketing strategy, the question is to what extent are you using the site’s analytics tool, Facebook Insights, to improve your efforts?

Its completely free and it offers an abundance of incredibly valuable information. In addition, Facebook Insights is fairly easy to navigate and pull information from once you know what you’re looking for. If you haven’t taken the time to explore the tool or don’t look at it regularly, learning how to use it to get more from your social media efforts could be very rewarding.

Here is a basic guide about Facebook Insights and how people are connecting with your page:

Overview.  This is where you can see your page summary, the promos you've run, and recent posts. It's a good dashboard to refer to for quick conclusions with a broad view of how your page is doing. You can export data from this page, into a neat excel version, ready to be analysed or sent on.

Likes. There’s much more to likes than what you can see on your main Facebook page. This section of Insights lets you see changes in likes, sources of likes, and more. You can also view ‘unlikes’ and investigate the reason fans may be ‘unliking’ your page.

Reach. This section shows you details about recommendations, comments, shares, and reactions that have happened on your page, and it gives stats about the total number of people who were served any activity from your page. A great way to see how your paid (boosted) posts have performed in comparison with your regular ones.

Page views. This is where you go to see the total number of people who have viewed your page and the sources of those views. You can go deeper into age, gender and even the section of your page which attracted those views, for example, was it your photo’s and videos which drew people in? Furthermore, you can see whether those viewers were directed from a search engine or searched for your page within Facebook.

Actions on the page. See how many visitors are getting directions, calling, clicking on your website link, or taking any other actions on your page.

Posts. This section will help you create smarter posts. You can see when your Facebook community members are online and which types of posts, work best to reach them.

People. Who are your fans exactly? This is a really interesting tab. You can determine the percentage of male and female fans, as well as their age category. You can even plunge into the number of fans by country, city or language. All of these can help your future posts more effectively.

Messages. Response times to Facebook messages are considered a vital part of running your Facebook page. Keep track of your messages in this section. How many active conversations you have going and whether you have missed any.

There are tons of insights to gather from this tool! Pretty neat, right? Now that you are ready to dive into your Facebook insights and improve the efficiency and success of your posts, here are some pointers to keep in mind:

• Check back often. Your Facebook analytics page is regularly updating, so you’ll want to pay attention to any patterns you see forming.
• Download the free Facebook Pages Manager App so you can keep in touch with your audience on the go and track all the happenings on your Facebook page, even if you’re away from your computer.
• Direct your posts to specific audiences and connect with the people who matter to your organisation.
• Update relevant info. Make sure people can contact you by ensuring that your website, phone number, and any other important information are up-to-date.
• Request an easy-to-find Facebook page URL by going to your General Account Settings. We suggest facebook.com/yourbusinessname.
• Schedule your posts for when you know your audience will be online.
• Download data about your page from the past 180 days by clicking Export Data on the top right of the overview tab. Just choose the specific date range and field.

If you have any questions or need advice, you can get in touch with the Digital Journey team at hello@digitaljourney.org.

Digital Journey works with individuals, businesses and organisations of all types across New Zealand. We provide FREE online digital assessments and resources, as well as training, coaching and project management services.

Our vision is to help everyone get the most out of the internet, online tools and digital technology.

Find out more at www.digitaljourney.org.