Have You Gleaned Your Facebook Insights Today?

by Jason SiegelFebruary 10, 2011

Facebook analytical insights introduced last year give brand marketers, agencies and communicators the ability to understand how their fan pages are performing. This performance should be aligned with the key performance indicators set forth in your master digital media strategy. Facebook shifted metrics to focus more on content sharing and fan behavior rather than the raw popularity of a page in its latest analytical updates. In 2011 here are some focus areas for your Facebook campaigns.

Where are the ‘Likes’ coming from
Facebook provides analytics that show how fans arrive at pages, whether through search engines, social engagement, or organically through other visibility generated in an integrated campaign. Understanding how your fans find you instantly gives you insight into how to reach them or expand your community for future outreach efforts.

Fan Page Demographics and User Behaviors
Demographic information about your fans includes gender, age, location (country and city) and language preferred. All data is anonymous, but this basic demographic information can help brands tailor and adjust their content to appeal to their true audience, and eliminate guesswork. Third party platforms from companies like BuddyMedia enable global brand marketers to focus their resources for a multilingual social engagement strategy to provide experiences in the necessary languages per the data extracted from Facebook.

Tab Popularity
A great improvement from previous analytics, with the expansion of tab customization on pages has enabled the analytics to tell brand marketers which tabs are most popular and provided more granular data on tab usage. These analytics shape future content strategies and tactics throughout a brands entire digital media strategy.

Quality Matters and Facebook Has The Data To Prove It
Facebook now gives each post a rating or index to allow for comparison and easy measurement. This function allows you to truly understand what content really makes fans tick to shape your future content strategies.

Are you gleaning insights robustly through Facebook? What are you finding out?

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What's new and useful about Facebook's analytics approach described here?

The platform shifted emphasis from raw fan counts to behaviors that indicate meaningful engagement and sharing. Marketers can now see where likes originate and how content spreads. This reframes success around quality interactions rather than vanity metrics. It aligns analytics with the goals of a modern social strategy.

How should we use source-of-like data in planning?

If fans arrive via search, double down on SEO-friendly content and FAQs. If social referrals dominate, invest in shareable formats and partnerships. When organic discovery is strong, nurture that momentum with consistent cadence. Source data tells you where to place the next marginal dollar.

Why do fan demographics matter for content strategy?

Knowing age, location, and language helps you tailor tone, examples, and publishing times. It also reveals gaps—audiences you thought you had but don’t. Third-party tools can operationalize multilingual engagement at scale. Data-driven adjustments make campaigns feel more personal and relevant.

What can tab-level analytics teach us?

They show which experiences or offers truly attract attention on your page. By comparing tab popularity, you can prioritize future builds and retire underperformers. This granularity makes content decisions less subjective. Over time, the page architecture mirrors what your audience values most.

How does Facebook rate individual posts now, and why does it help?

An index or score allows apples-to-apples comparisons across content types. You can identify patterns-topics, formats, or calls-to-action that consistently outperform. Those insights tighten your editorial playbook and improve hit rate. Quality becomes measurable, not just anecdotal.

What's the overarching takeaway for social teams?

Treat Insights as the feedback loop for your strategy, not an afterthought. Use it to validate hypotheses, shift resources quickly, and sunset tactics that lag. When measurement focuses on behavior, creative improves. Better inputs lead to compound gains in reach and loyalty.