As brands continue to invest in Facebook Fan Pages, management is raising questions about performance. It's clear that building community on Facebook is important, but it's not always clear which programs are most effective, which content resonates, how performance compares to competitors, or the overall value created. At Simply Measured, we've been knee-deep in Facebook Fan Page analytics, working with top brands and agencies to make sense of Facebook data. To highlight the analysis and our customers are doing on Facebook, we put together a top 10 13 list of key questions you can answer with Facebook Fan Page analytics.
1. We've got tons of fans, but how much visibility and engagement are we generating?
There is a lot of talk about getting more "likes" (a.k.a. fans) on Facebook, but what does this really mean for your brand? Looking at impressions and engagement rates can help tell a more complete story about Facebook performance. Tracking these metrics helps understand reach, engagement, and performance over time beyond your fan count.
2. How do consumers engage with our brand?
A high-level view of engagement is important, but a more granular view of consumer behavior can also help guide strategy. Are fans liking our content, commenting, or posting on the wall? How does this change over time based on our campaigns and programs? Do we want to foster certain kinds of engagement, or let this happen organically?
3. How does the content we're publishing resonate with our fans?
Looking specifically at engagement on brand posts will help to understand the impact of outbound content and programs. Tracking likes and comments on brand posts helps determine which content is working and more specifically how consumers are responding to different topics, programs, and campaigns.
4. What type of content should we post?
As a brand on Facebook, we're able to post statuses, photos, videos, and links - so where should we focus our energy? What type of content gets the best response from our fans? What is the appropriate mix and balance between interactive and static content?
5. What content should we write to best engage our audience?
There are clearly a number of variables that will impact content performance in social media - message, tone, timing, and even punctuation. Comparing performance of each individual post can help guide all aspects of our content strategy. When we ask questions do we get more responses? When we post deals do people share? Does a certain tone or voice draw a consistently higher response rate from fans?
6. What is my audience talking about and why?
Getting to the core of the conversation can help to understand customer behavior. Looking at the things people are talking about on our Facebook page gives a sense for what customers care about, what issues they have, and consumer sentiment around our brand.
7. How are people finding my page?
Understanding how people arrive at our Fan Page can give context to how social media is performing relative to our broader marketing campaigns and help guide decisions about marketing spend. Which efforts are driving the most traffic to our social media properties? Which organic sources contribute the most? Where should we be investing further to build our social media presence?
8. My fan base is growing! But, where are they coming from?
Growth is great, but asking how and why can guide decisions to ensure growth continues. Are we gaining more fans from SEO or from advertising? Which broader marketing strategies are having the biggest impact on our social media presence?
9. On a net basis, our audience is growing, but how many fans are we losing and gaining?
Fans are a valuable commodity on Facebook. Analyzing the details of fan growth and churn can help inform which programs are the most effective and which have a negative effect on our audience.
10. Who are my advocates on Facebook?
In the sea of fans, are there people who stand-out from the crowd? Tracking our most engaged users helps identify advocates and influencers.
11. What type of people are we drawing to our fan page? How does this compare to our broader customer base?
Understanding the type of consumers that we are engaging is critical to shaping our strategy. Which demographics respond best to our content and campaigns? How does our audience on Facebook align with our broader target demographic/customer? How can we adjust to reach new demographics of customers?
12. Where is our audience on Facebook?
Facebook is available in over 100 international markets. Understanding where your fans are from will give context to customer behavior and will aid in developing targeted messaging strategies.
13. We're based in London... so, why are most of my fans posting in Portuguese?
Are the majority of your fans speaking a language that isn't native to your brand?
The was originally posted on the Simply Measured Analytics Blog.