The Facebook fan page is on its way to becoming a top new advertising platform. After all, Facebook is now officially the most popular U.S. website according to data from Hitwise analytics. Facebook has gone a long way in making its fan pages more flexible as far as design and content is concerned, allowing for custom tabs that look brand-spankingly out of this world. Avast, ye hearties, now they’ve updated Insights, a free service similar to web analytics that is available for everyone who has a fan page to track the progress of it.
The new and improved Insights dashboard was made live just recently to page admins. It sports a more clean and sophisticated look and we think it is much more informative and user-friendly, with analytics available for each tab, external referrers (other websites that link back to your Facebook page), and the ability to track “Likes”, comments and unsubscribing activity for your blog or website.
Marooned Off the Ship
The most noticeable difference between the old and the new – there is no more “post quality” score. It was a general but not very informative score on how “engaging” your posts were. Great for an aggregate judgment of how your posts compare to other pages with a similar fan base, but it was hard to base decisions on that number. Keep your pants on though, you hard core post quality advocate you, admins still have the option of viewing page insights in the old dashboard! That being said, we aren’t sure how long Facebook will make that available, so best to get used to the new one.
Freshly Sharpened Scimitars
Like a breath of fresh air, our favourite aspect of the new dashboard is the visually-pleasing graphs and stats.
Gotta love colour coding! It’s clearly categorized for Users and Interactions. Best of all, the line graphs are mouseover interactive and print-able, save-able and full-screen with the click of one button.
Say you’re interested in finding out more about your page users. Of course you are because then you can target your status updates, contests and daily interactions according to your audience, what they like and when they’re online. The User dashboard is separated out with priceless data for how many daily active users go on your page, their demographics (gender, age, location), and activity (which tabs and how many photos are viewed and audio and video plays by percentage).
To get a deeper scoop into your users’ Interactions, there is daily post and story feedback. Along with separating “Likes”, comments and unsubscribes on the aforementioned beauteous line graphs, impressions and feedback data are given for each of your most recent Wall posts. Now it’s as easy as apple pie (a la creme) to understand what kinds of posts and status updates appeal most to your fans.
For more information on the New Insights from the developers themselves, check out their blog post.
Making the Most Out of Your Insights Dashboard
Regardless of whether you are using the old or new dashboard, here are some key points to remember:
- People often stumble onto fan pages through web search. The right kind of information is therefore a good lure to fan-dom. Tailor the content of your page to address the majority of your members. May we add the Demographics graph is the best looking one on the new dashboard.
- Posts with interactive applications are also another way to improve the fan page. Posts that encourage users to participate in polls and votes ensure that users come back for more. Contests can also be great way to bring in more fans.
- Even if the percentage of new subscribers is low, you should pay more attention on the percentage of fans who have unsubscribed. If your members are leaving then your fan page is not doing its job.
- Keep updating regularly with quality content. If you have enough members, one (or you can squeak by with two) posts per day with the members participating keep the page alive. See which posts have drawn most interactivity and post similar things on the page. Give it a month or so and see if a trend emerges on what kind of posts were best received by the members.
With all that being said, the Facebook Insight data should be taken with a pinch of salt. Numbers are not everything. The Facebook insight stats can be best utilized as pointers on how to maximize the potential of your page. For instance, if you can track what time during the week your page traffic peaks, you can use that time to update relevant content to get most immediate interactions.
Want to know more about Fan Page Insights? Do give us a call, email, tweet, comment (you get the picture) and we’d be happy to tell you more about it!
P.S. What’s with the pirate Treasure Island theme? We’re just stoked for the epic Exile Island event Children’s Wish Foundation is putting on September 22. We’re helping them with their social media strategy for the event as well as a couple of customized Facebook tabs – Welcome and Exile Island. Curious about which local business leader will ‘Outsmart. Outplay. Outpledge?’ Stay tuned to their Facebook page for exciting updates.
Written by:
Priscilla Ho {Profile}: Online Marketing Wizard @ October 17 Media
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Tags: Blogs, Boost Online Traffic, Facebook, Landing Pages, Online Marketing Strategy
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