Facebook’s Page Insights has just had a major makeover. Over the past few weeks, Facebook has been gradually sending invitations to page admins to try out the new version of Page Insights.
On July 10, it appears that quite a big group of page admins received access (Link-Assistant.Com included), because exactly on this day, the social Web erupted with conversations on new Facebook Insights:
However, it also looks like not everyone has been invited so far, because a colleague of mine (who is also an admin for our Page) can’t see the new interface yet.
Needless to say, I couldn’t resist dabbling in it right away.
So, what has changed? Well, a LOT! There is a ton more data provided. Besides, that data makes much more sense now. If you’re familiar with Facebook Insights, you probably know that the older version has often been dubbed by marketers as not that helpful at best, and useless or buggy at worst.
However, with the new Page Insights, this seems to be a matter of the past.
Three new tabs: Page, Posts and People
So, instead of Likes, Reach and the redundant Talking About This, it is now Page, Posts and People, which is more easy-to-grasp and logical, if you ask me.
The Overview tab is still there, but it has largely been revamped and broken down into some new sections.
The all-in-one Overview graph is no more
I personally find it a big improvement. The old lets-mix-everything-together Overview graph would often lag (the data you saw by default would sometimes be 2 weeks old), was hard to read and would not separate page-level metrics from post-level metrics.
The new version makes it much easier to understand your Facebook performance over the past 7 days.
Total Likes is now Page Likes
I think it is now much clearer what this metric is. Plus, you can now see New Page Likes at a glance.
Post Reach is the new Weekly Total Reach
To me, Weekly Total Reach used to be another confusing metric found in the old version. Instead, you now have Post Reach, which lets you easily estimate how your posts performed over the week.
Virality is now Engagement
The new Engagement metric is way deeper. It’s made up of your posts’ likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
PTAT (People Talking About This) is gone
I don’t think many will miss the good old PTAT section, as it would count page-level and post-level metrics together. This is now broken down into separate metrics.
A new column called Type has been added
Before, you could use a separate filter to slice post metrics by post type (text, image, video, etc.). And now you can see post type specified right in the Recent Posts table.
The new “Where Your Page Likes Came From”
I really like the new version of this widget (found under Page). Some of the stats reported in the previous version (such as Mobile or On Hover) were not helpful at all, and had to do more with what technology inspired Page Likes, rather than what marketing efforts inspired them.
The new widget clearly tells you how many Page Likes originated from the posts you published (Your Posts), the post other people created (Posts by Other People), visits to your Facebook Page (On Your Page) or Page Suggestions.
“Hide Post”, “Report as Spam” and “Unlike Page” stats
Another pleasant surprise in new Page Insights is that it shows you when and how many people chose to hide your posts, report you as spam or unlike your page.
The data is available under Page > Post Reach and it helps you understand which of your activities could have triggered negative response, so that you can make changes to your marketing strategy accordingly.
Way more insight on “Page Visits” now
The older section that used to be called Visits to Your Page did not tell you much about your page visitors. Now, the new Page Visits section (under Page) is comparable with Google Analytics.
Not only does it show you how your visitors came to your Page from Facebook (via Timeline, Photos Tab, etc.), but also lets you see how much traffic has been driven from website off of Facebook (such as google.com, yoursite.com, and others).
You can now “stalk” your fans online, yay!
Another thing I love about the new Facebook Insight I that it shows you when your fans are online in the When Your Fans Are Online section (under Posts).
There has been a lot of research as to what time is the best to post to Facebook, Twitter, etc. But the findings of any such research pale in comparison to the opportunities presented by this new Insights metric. It tells you when is the best time to talk to your very fans of your very page, which is really great insight.
”Best Post Types” truly rocks
Another truly yummy section I found in the new Facebook Insights is a section where you can see which types of posts (status updates, photos, links, etc.) have the biggest reach and drive the most engagement on your Page.
PTAT (People Talking About This) finally demystified
The new People tab is much less mysterious than the previously displayed Talking About This section, which used to puzzle many an SMM marketer.
The new version lets you go real granular and provides 2 separate widgets for People Reached and People Engaged. People Reached are people who saw your posts, while People Engaged are people who engaged with your posts.
Final words – what is still missing
As you may have sensed from the post, I like new Page Insights a lot. The tool has become really helpful (not to mention the much cleaner ) and now provides analytics that can be actually acted upon.
However, there are a few things still missing in my opinion – for example, hashtag stats. As you may know, Facebook supports hashtags and many marketers actually use them. It would be nice to see if the hashtags I use affect traffic, sign-ups and engagement in any way.
What about you? Do you find the new Page Insights useful? Would love to hear your feedback in comments!
Image credit: audioundwerbung via iStockPhoto
Alesia is an SEO and a digital marketer at Link-Assistant.Com, a major SEO software provider and the maker of SEO PowerSuite tools. Link-Assistant.Com is a group of SEO professionals with almost a decade of SEO experience. Based on their expertise, the company’s four-app SEO toolset was created, setting the industry’s benchmark for technology-driven Web promotion.