Last week, the old version of Facebook Insights faded into history, replaced by a leaner, more focused version. The new Insights places less of a focus on Likes, as maturing Fan pages switch from Growth to Engagement+Growth. Troy Thompson at Travel 2.0 made this observation earlier this year.
2012 will be all about Engagement.
It’s not enough to have tens or even hundreds of thousands of Fans if they aren’t interacting with your Brand. Engagement is about turning passive observers into passionate contributors. The Holy Grail of Engagement is a Brand who barely posts content because Fans are sharing their own content that reflects the Brand. The example below is the Powder Highway page, which has seen incredible Fan posted content.
The new Facebook Insights makes steps towards creating Intelligence on what content is engaging and highlights 4 important metrics:
- Weekly Total Reach
- The unique number of Fans who have seen content posted to your page
- People Talking About
- The number of Fans who have shared your pages content to their network by way of Comments, Posting to your Wall, Liking a Post, Answering a Question, etc.
- Friends of Fans
- The number of potential Fans you can reach through your pages current Fan network
- Total Likes
- The current number of people who Like your page (Fans)
For Tourism Organizations, the primary KPI’s to measure using these metrics are
- Reach (Awareness)
- Engagement (Organic Conversation)
- Industry Leads (Conversions)
Your Reach can be targeted in two ways: targeting to potential Fans, and targeting Friends of Current Fans. In a funnel Structure, this is the top and largest part of your funnel.
Your Engagement percentage is the number of Total Fans divided by People Talking About. The Goal here is to increase the People Talking About number, turning passive observers into passionate contributors.
Depending on the structure of your particular organization, Industry Leads are the Conversions that happen when Engaged Fans take your desired action, such as a click through to your website, sign up for a newsletter, or filling out a form. It’s important to note that Facebook currently does not track Conversions, so a Link Tracker must be used (such as Bit.ly) to see this data.
As part of a Social Media Strategy, filling this funnel and strengthening the levels within it is key to keeping your Fans, while turning them into SuperFans who impact your business.
