1) The document provides guidance on how to analyze insights data from a Facebook page to understand engagement. 2) Key metrics to examine include reactions, shares, and reach over time to understand what types of posts perform best. 3) The insights data can be filtered by date range and exported to a CSV file for further analysis. This allows tracking metrics like followers, stories shared, and impressions over time. 4) Understanding where followers come from and how they engage helps optimize Facebook strategies and ensure they are effective at meeting organizational goals.

1. Getting the most out of Facebook Insights
Presented by Sarah Baughman and Karen Jeannette, eXtension
Insights Basics
Please note you must be an administrator on the Facebook Page that you want to analyze!
To access Insights, click on “Insights” on left side of page
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2. You should see this in the middle of the page:
 Key metrics to view here are noted along the top bar. Also note that this is ONLY for the previous week.
 You can click on the small arrows next to each metric for an explanation of that metric.
 The pink circles at the bottom show the number of posts. The green line is “people talking about this”
and the blue line is your “weekly total reach”
 Take a look at the “peaks and valleys.” For instance on this page, you might wonder why the weekly
total reach fell so much around February 15th.
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3. Next you want to take a look at the bottom of this page w here the posts are listed.
 This section lists the post by date.
 You can learn more about each column by clicking on the small question mark next to each column
label.
 You will want to spend some time exploring your posts. What posts are going viral? Are there
similarities in the types of posts that are most viral (like video links, new articles, etc)?
 Think about the goals for your Facebook page. Are your posts getting you towards those goals?
After you have explored your posts go back to the top left and under Insights you will see “Likes.” Click
on “Likes” to learn more about the people who have “liked” your page. There are two main sections,
demographics and locations and where your likes are coming from or how people are finding you.
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4.  Note the box with the date at the top of this page. You can customize the date range for likes by
clicking on the arrow in that box.
 Start by looking at your demographics: Are they what you would expect? Are you reaching your target
audience?
 It can also be interesting to get a sense for the countries and cities where the most people are from that
like your page. Keep in mind that cities listed often encompass a broad area and are identified by the
closest major city.
Now take a look at where your likes come from
 Starting on the left side of the screen, you can see your new likes by date as well as unlikes. This is also
a good place to examine hills and valleys. What made one day get you more likes or unlikes?
 Next take a look at “Like Sources” to learn how people are finding your page. Click on the small question
marks next to each source to find out what that means. This is an interesting metric to examine over
time to see if there are trends based on other actions you have taken.
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5. After you have explored your “likes” go back to the top left and under Insights you will see “Reach.”
Click on “Reach” to learn more about the people who are actually viewing your page or posts.
 Once again you can customize the date range by clicking on the arrow next to the date.
 The first section you will see is demographics and locations. This looks similar to the information you
saw under likes. The difference is “Likes” demographics tells you about the people who have clicked
“like” on your page whereas “Reach” demographics tells you about the people who have seen any
content associated with your page.
Now take a look at how you reached people
 Notice that you can change what type of page content you want to explore by clicking on the arrow next
to “All Page Content” box.
 The first graph shows you how many people saw any content about your page and whether these
people were reached directly by you (organic), from a friend (viral) or via a paid ad (paid).
 You can also explore how frequently individuals are accessing your page by looking at “Unique Users by
Frequency.” It is nice to see people being reached more than one or twice.
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6. Now take a look at visits to your page
 The final section under reach is titled “Visits to Your Page”.
 The graph tells you how many times the page has been viewed versus the number of unique visitors.
Unique visitors is a better indicator of your reach because it only counts a visitor one time no matter
how many times they return to the page that day.
 On the bottom left, you can see more details on how people are viewing your page.
 The “External Referrers” list is helpful in understanding where people are coming from to your page.
For instance it is useful to know that the blog is directing people to the Facebook page considerably
more often than the public web presence.
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7. After you have explored your “Reach” go back to the top left and under Insights you will see “Talking
about This.” Click on “Talking about this” to learn more about how you are engaging with people.
 Once again you can modify the date range by clicking on the arrow next to the date box.
 The first box gives you the demographics and locations of the people who are talking about your page.
Talking about your page means they have created a story about your page. For instance they may have
shared a link on their home page about your post.
Now take a look at how people are talking about your page
 Once again you can customize the type of story you want to see so you can get either a big picture view
with “all stories” or a more specific view with page likes or questions.
 This particular set of graphs is interesting because it tells us that during the week of February 8 – 14
while only 68 people created a story about this page, 5750 people saw that story. So someone(s) who
shared or created a story was very influential! It would be worth investigating further to see who
shared what type of story so these results can be replicated.
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8. Finally, for those true data lovers…..
Return to the main “Insights” page by clicking on “Insights” on the left side of the page.
Notice the box on the right side of the page that says “Export Data.” This allows you to get all of the data we
have just seen by customized date plus much more!
To export data, click on the “Export Data” box and you will get a pop-up that looks like this:
To download data, select “page level data” in a “comma-separated values” format (you can save as excel later)
for the desired date range. I use .csv because I have found that the file doesn’t download well directly into
excel. I open as .csv and then save as .xls file.
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9. When prompted, click to open the file then save before you start looking at the data. Your file will look like this
This file gives you much more detail about the activity on your facebook page. The columns I find particularly
useful are:
 Column D - 28 Days The number of people sharing stories about your page.
 Coumn G - 28 Days The number of stories created about your Page. (Total Count)
 Column L - 28 Days The number of people who engaged with your Page. Engagement includes any click
or story created. (Unique Users)
 Column W - 28 Days The number of people who have seen any content associated with your Page.
(Unique Users)
 Column AF - 28 Days The number of people who saw your Page or one of its posts from a story
published by a friend
 Column AI - 28 Days The number of impressions seen of any content associated with your Page. (Total
Count)
 Coumn AY - 28 Days The number of people who saw any of your Page posts. (Unique Users)
 Column BH - 28 Days The number of people who saw your Page posts via a story from a friend. (Unique
Users)
 Column GN - 28 Days The number of people who clicked on any of your content. Clicks generating
stories are included in "Other Clicks." Stories generated without clicks on page content (e.g.,
liking the page in Timeline) are not included. (Unique Users)
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10.  Column GP - 28 Days The number of clicks on any of your content. Clicks generating stories are included
in "Other Clicks." Stories generated without clicks on page content (e.g., liking the page in
Timeline) are not included. (Total Count)
 Colunn XE - 28 Days The number of people who have given negative feedback to your Page. (Unique
Users)
Be sure to save your downloaded file on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, quarterly or whatever works for you)
so that you will have access to the historical data!
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