Move over Facebook "Fans" and "Likers," there's more to tracking marketing success on Facebook than the number of fans your company's page has. Marketing success is more than just about popularity and the number of friends.
Marketing success on Facebook is the amount of customer interaction, postings, comments, discussion threads, spreading your brand and promotions. Otherwise, it's just vanity.
So, moving beyond the number of Facebook fans your company has, there are three metrics that can help you discern whether your social media outreach is working or falling flat. Add these metrics into your social media analytic mix, and you'll quickly see where your Facebook page needs improvement.
Engagement
Measuring Facebook engagement is measuring the rate and type of interaction your customers have with your page, your posts and each other. Essentially, a high rate of Facebook engagement shows that your posts, promotions, and general information are captivating enough that it spurs discussion and comments from your customers. They value what you have to say and trust that you value what they have to say in return.
Here's what to look for on your Facebook page in terms of engagement:
• Which fans interact the most?
• Which fans interact the least?
• How do fans interact?
• What's the most common interaction?
• What type of post garners the most interaction?
• What type of post garners the least?
Luckily since Facebook's last update, there are very handy reports included right in your admin section for monitoring reach and engagement.
Content
Determining how effective your Facebook content goes hand-in-hand with engagement. The telltale marker of great content is the level of interaction your Facebook fans have with it.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's look at the different types of content most commonly found on company Facebook pages.
• Promotions, deals or coupons
• Surveys
• Company news
• Product information including updates and new product launches
Further, great content doesn't necessarily mean that it's written well. Often, great content spurs engagement because it's controversial or newsworthy.
So, here are some questions to ask of your Facebook content to see how well it's performing for you:
• Which type of content leads to the most engagement?
• Which type, the least? •
Of your posters within your company, who has the best record of accomplishment for engagement?
Wall Response Rate/Wall Response Time
This metric is tricky because it's often overlooked by companies. Some don't even realize that they need to measure their wall response rate.
So, what exactly is wall response rate, and how is it different from wall response time?
Wall response rate is the percentage of customer posts that your company responds to. Wall response time is the time it takes for your company to respond to a customer's post or question.
For those who are unfamiliar with either metric, let's cover some of the emerging best practices.
If you have a team dedicated to social media, then your wall response rate needs to be higher than 60%. Meaning, 60 out of 100 customer questions needs to be answered.
Further, your response time needs to be an hour or two at the most, not days.
The fast response times and response rates demonstrate how much you value your customers. Since social media is all about building bridges and communicating directly with each other, then it comes as no surprise that those companies that are failing in either department are failing in general on Facebook.
Are you monitoring your Facebook page with set metrics? Or are you just happy with seeing a few likes and comments now and then?
Need a tool to help you improve engagement and connect your Facebook efforts to your email marketing, signup forms, and other channels? Try out our Facebook marketing tool that let's you automate wall posts and adds marketing apps to your page.
