For small businesses that have already jumped into social media marketing, keeping track of your Facebook activity just got a little easier. (And if you haven’t gotten involved with social marketing yet, what are you waiting for?) Facebook has a tracking feature called Facebook Insights that allows page administrators to measure activity on
their Facebook pages, tracked over a 7-day period. This detailed information is critical to understanding how well your Facebook page is performing for your business.
To see your Facebook activity, all you have to do is log in to your Facebook account, and then click on the Facebook Insights link displayed in the left column of the page (remember, this will be visible only to administrators of the page). Data is typically updated 12 hours after each full day, so you can see fresh stats on how your fans are interacting with your content, and easily watch for trends and overall performance.
You can look at your data in two main ways; 1) by fans that have “interacted” with your page called the Fan Interaction Dashboard, or 2) by all fans of your page, called the Fan Dashboard. An “interaction” occurs when a fan writes on your wall, leaves a comment on a post, or clicks on the “likes this” link on your page. So visitors and fans that simply read your latest information but don’t click on anything or leave a comment will not be counted in this data, but will be counted in the Fan Dashboard instead.
The Fan Interaction Dashboard
Some of the stats available in the Fan Interaction Dashboard include:
Total interactions – the number of wall posts, comments, and “likes”
Interactions per post – the average number of comments, wall posts, and “likes” for each piece of content that you post
Post quality – the score that measures how engaging your content is to visitors – the more engaging your content is, the higher your post quality score will be
Total posts – the number of posts made to your wall or in video
To help boost your interaction stats, you need to encourage visitors to interact with your content in some way. Like any other form of online marketing, you must contribute high-quality content to your Facebook page if you want your fans to actually interact with that content. For instance:
Make sure you post your latest news and events to your Facebook page, so your fans can see your interesting stories or upcoming events and share them with their own networks
Add web video whenever you can, since videos are popular with users and will help engage them
Post photos on your wall that visitors will find interesting – commenting on photos is one of the most common types of interaction on Facebook
Be sure to post regularly – but not too often – to give visitors additional opportunities to interact with your content
When fans interact with your content, it helps distribute your content virally on Facebook, which in turn helps build organic links for you and increases the amount of your high-quality content that gets published and shared in other peoples’ profiles and/or pages.
The Fan Dashboard
The other way to look at your Facebook data is by looking at all fans in the Fan Dashboard, which includes:
Total fans / unsubscribes – The total number of your fans, and the number of fans who have chosen to hide your posts (unsubscribe)
New / removed fans – number of new fans, and number of people who have stopped being a fan of your page
Total page views – the number of times your page has been viewed per day
Media consumption – how many photo views, audio plays, and video plays your content has received
You may have already noticed that within the last few weeks, Facebook has started automatically sending a weekly email to page administrators with a brief summary of their Facebook activity, along with a link to their Facebook Insights stats. This can be a helpful reminder to review your weekly Facebook information, and also to remind you to post your most recent relevant, high-quality content to draw in and engage your visitors.
400 Million Users Can’t Be Wrong
Of course, Facebook is only one of the many social networking platforms that can help you market your small business, but it is certainly the most-used social site today (it has even surpassed Google as the most-visited site on the web!). There are more than 400,000,000 active Facebook users, and that number continues to grow every month. Like it or not, your customers are already using Facebook, and you need to meet them where they are spending their time.
But with Facebook Insights, it is now a little easier to measure how your Facebook page is performing for your business. By watching the data over time, you can identify the things that really capture interest or result in better visitor interactions, then focus your efforts on doing more of those things. The more you can build your fan base, spread your content to others, and provide high-quality information, the better the results from your social marketing efforts.
Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional website, marketing, and social networking services to small businesses and non-profits at affordable prices, giving clients access to customized services that meet both their needs and their budgets. More at www.fivesparrows.com. Copyright 2010, Five Sparrows. All Rights Reserved.



Social networking is something which polarises opinion. Individuals with a passion for online interaction revel in it, online marketers thrive on it and the majority of employers despair of the impact it can have on employee productivity. It cannot however be doubted that websites such as Facebook and Twitter are developing absolutely gigantic presence online and in the face of their growing popularity and the comfort users are developing with medium: the manner in which they are used is constantly transforming and diversifying.
The disaster in Haiti shook the world. In response to this tragedy, thousands if not millions looked to offer their support to victims and generally help out in whatever way they could. Facebook and other social networking websites availed themselves as the ideal medium for the extremely rapid creation of an online community and helped to co-ordinate people from across the globe in trying to achieve the singular aim of providing aid. This pulling together using social networking is in the process of happening again in the face of the disruption caused to international travel caused by the volcanic ash cloud. Facebook pages such as ‘The Volcanic Ash Cloud!’ have developed into places where local information is shared and true community spirit is rife in trying to help those stranded by the air travel restrictions.
Sounds like a late-night infomercial, but in fact, a minimal investment (mostly time) can help you establish a highly visible and rewarding social media outpost on Twitter.


