If you’re an author using Facebook (and really, I hope you are), then you need to look at social networking as a piece of your business. That means analyzing it — just like you would any other advertising initiative — to determine what’s working and what’s a waste of your time.
Enter Facebook Insights. Much like Google Analytics (which we install in all of our author websites), it provides you with statistics on who is looking at your Facebook page, which of your posts are getting the most views, likes and/or comments, the days in which your Facebook page got the most traffic, etc…
And unlike GoogleAnalytics, Facebook can actually tell you who was looking at your Facebook page. So while both tools can tell you how many people viewed something, only Facebook Insights has the data to also tell you the age and gender of those individuals: valuable information in helping you determine what to write about in the future and who seems to be most interested in your writings.
According to Jay Baer, a social media strategist, the specific things you should be looking for in Facebook Insights are:
- Feedback: Every time you post a status update, Facebook Insights can tell you how many people have looked at it, liked it, or commented on it. Obviously, you want likes and comments. The ones that get more of those are “successes,” and you should aim to post similar updates in the future.
- Hides: A “hide” is when someone clicks the “X” to remove your updates from their news feed. It’s just like unsubscribing from your newsletter. Essentially, it’s a lost fan. By tracking these hides, you should be better able to figure out how to avoid them in the future.
- Impressions: This is simply the number of people who saw your update. By determining which of your updates were viewed by the most people, you can decide what types of updates (and what time of day) are most successful.
Just like the rest of Facebook, “Insights” is free. Click here to check out some FAQs on the tool.
Ready to get started? Simply visit http://www.facebook.com/insights/