What are two of the most important components of any business endeavor? Strategic planning and measurement.

Every day the number of businesses using Facebook is growing, yet 60 percent of businesses admit to shooting from the hip in their implementation, and ignoring the very important metrics that any Facebook Page admin has access to for free.

In using Facebook for your business, you should ask yourself three questions:

• How do you know what is working?

• How do you know if you are targeting their right audience?

• How do you know what your audience is interested in?

Answer: With Facebook Insights!

Facebook Insights

As it often does, Facebook moved this section from a more prominent graphical display on your fan page to a less obvious location at the top right of your admin panel. Click “See Insights” for a wealth of knowledge.

Key metric 1: Who are you communicating with anyway?

Many page admins don’t even know the make up of their fan page, and if they have successfully built the right community for their target market. Once in Facebook Insights, select “People – Your Fans” to see your demographics. This section compares the demographic of your fan base to that of Facebook as a whole. Make sure the context and tone you use in posts is relevant to your audience. If you find that your audience is not what you expected, it is time to reconsider your strategy to appeal to your target market.

Key metric 2: What is working?

There are many blogs out there in the world of social media telling you what you should be doing. Why don’t you let your fans tell you what they like? Select “Posts – Post Types” to see what kinds of posts your audience finds most intriguing. You’ll see this example goes against what most experts say you must do – basic status updates vs. images get the most engagement for this fan page. Make sure you listen to your fans, not just the latest “expert” opinion.

Key metric 3: What if no one is engaging?

Look at your numbers, your audience makeup, the tone and context of your posts. If you have no engagement, it’s time to make some changes. However, another possibility is that you have a silent audience. Notice in the image above the pink line shows likes/comments/shares. These are the things you can see on your page itself. The blue line shows post clicks. I’ve seen metrics with nothing in the pink, and high numbers in the blue.

This would indicate you have a silent, but interested audience. If you find your active engagement numbers are low, but your post clicks are high, perhaps you need to get creative to get your fans to come out of their shell.

Take some time to review your insights, see how things are working for you, and what is not, and let the numbers guide you to a stronger Facebook presence next period.

Sue Koch is the chief navigator for Soaring Solutions, LLC. She can be reached at:

Mobile: 773.844.4438

Fax: 773.435.6370

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