Social media analytics is all about collecting data from social media platforms and leveraging that information to make better, more intentional decisions for your organization. Consulting your Facebook and Instagram analytics regularly helps you understand how to use these platforms as a part of your marketing strategy, so your organization can grow and thrive.

More than 3.8 billion people across the world use social media platforms every day. It’s crowded and it’s competitive. Social media analytics are an invaluable resource in gauging customer’s interests. If you don’t know what’s happening on your own social channels, how will you know what content is and isn’t working?

You’re probably thinking, “This sounds great, but where do I even start?” Great question. Let’s talk about a few different ways to keep track of your data analytics to make the most out of your content on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook

Facebook is the social media platform with the most active users and because of that has one of the most sophisticated analytics interfaces. Start by clicking on the Insights tab on your organization’s homepage. That should take you to your page summary — an overview of all the data from your organization’s page. This gives you a ton of valuable information to track and analyze your content. By now, you’re asking yourself, “But what data should I focus on?” And I’m so glad you asked!

There are three sections to keep your eyes on: Posts, Reach and Engagement

Posts

Posts are the physical content being shared on your page.

• Three types of posts:
  1. Links
  2. Photo
  3. Video

Reach

Reach is the number of unique people who saw your content. Reach affects every other metric that is tracked such as engagement, likes, comments and clicks.

• Five types of reach:
  1. Post
     • The number of people who saw any of your posts at least once.
  2. Page
     • The number of people who viewed any content associated with your page.
  3. Organic
     • The number of people who visited your page, saw your page or one of its posts in newsfeed.
  4. Viral
     • The number of people who saw your content because their friend likes or follows your page, engaged with your post or shred a photo. (ex: Magnificent Human liked this)
  5. Paid
     • The number of people who had a post from your page enter their screen.

Engagement

Engagement is any action someone takes on your Facebook page or one of your posts. These numbers will indicate how interactive your audience is with your organization’s content. The most common examples are likes, comments and shares, but it can also include checking in to your location or tagging you in a post. Facebook engagement matters because it can help extend organic reach. Here are a few ways to boost your engagement:

• Teach, Inform, Entertain or Inspire

Your Facebook audience is not looking for a sales pitch – and they certainly are not going to engage with one. Users want content that will make them smile, make them think or improve their lives in some way. Think about why you follow the accounts that you do. What are you trying to get from their content?

• Know Your Audience

Under the Facebook Insights page, there is a tab called People. The People page displays the number of people who saw any of your posts at least once, grouped by age, gender and demographic data. With this information you can better define your target market and adjust messaging accordingly.

• Focus On Quality Over Quantity

Users are moving through social media platforms so quickly that there isn’t any time for sub-par content. And since you and your organization are definitely not sub-par, your content shouldn’t be either. It’s more important to spend time working on high quality content that your followers want to see, rather than spamming them with random posts. Focus on curating content that matters to your followers and is relevant to your brand.

Instagram

With more than 25 million business profiles, it’s no wonder why organizations are finding value in promoting and advertising on Instagram. But if you don’t know who is viewing your content, how posts are performing or what your audience looks like, then you could be wasting time (and sometimes money) creating the wrong content.

Similar to Facebook, Insights are the analytics behind Instagram. They are broken out into three subsections: Activity, Content and Audience

Activity

There are two sections to monitor while tracking your Instagram Activity – Discovery and Interactions.

Discovery displays the overall performance and influence of your account by measuring how many people see your content and where they found it.

Within Discovery, you have two more key metrics: Reach and Impressions

• Reach – the number of accounts who have seen your posts.
• Impressions – the total number of times all your posts have been seen.

Interactions measure the actions users take when they engage with your account.

In R&R’s case, Interactions are broken out into two subgroups: Profile Visits and Website Clicks.

• Profile Visits – the number of times our profile was viewed.
• Website Clicks – the number of times a user visited our website through our bio.

Content

The content tab provides insights relating to individual posts on your profile including:

1. The number of posts and stories shared.
   • This includes the number of times that a post was seen compared to how many likes it received.
2. The number of users who viewed your stories.
3. The performance results of a post promotion.

Audience

This is where you are able to gain a better understanding of who your followers are and where they live, as well as how your follower count has varied week to week.

1. Growth
   • Overall
     • The number of accounts that follow you.
   • Followed You
     • How many accounts followed you in that week.
   • Unfollowed
     • How many accounts unfollowed you in that week.
2. Top Locations
   • The places your followers are concentrated.
3. Age Range and Gender
   • Age/gender distribution of followers.
4. Followers
   • Average days/time our followers are on Instagram.

Tracking your social media analytics is a key factor for improving your marketing efforts. If you don’t track your data, you will be wasting valuable time planning media strategies that might not be working. And the best part is, all of these analytics are free in Facebook and Instagram with your business account – so there is no reason to miss out.