This is Day 27 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here.
Facebook provides all page administrators with a tool for tracking the growth of the page as well as the number of interactions on your page. There are a few numbers which you can look at to determine how to improve you page most effectively. Ultimately by performing the steps outlined over the 30 days to 3,000 fans program, you should have figured out the most effective methods of improving your page.

Understanding Post Quality

Facebook provides one metric which they suggest page administrators use to determine the quality of their posts called “Post Quality”. I tell most people to take this metric with a grain of salt. The system encourages that you increase the volume of posts that you make to a reasonable level (2 -3 times a day) and to improve the quality of the posts as measured by the number of comments and likes on each post.

As I’ve written a number of times, it’s possible to increase the number of comments and likes by asking questions as well as posting more relevant posts. I’ve also found that jokes tend to get a larger response. Facebook then determines post quality in a number of ways but the most obvious is the number of interactions as a percentage of the size of your fan base. If 50 percent of your fan base is interacting regularly, you’ll end up with a high post quality score.

While there are a number of other metrics that you can keep track of to increase your post quality, I honestly don’t think this is the most effective measure of the success of your page. It may be possible to attract a large number of fans who are simply not active. Well known brands and personalities tend to get a larger number of replies per post. The best model to improving your post quality is to test out various types of posts and see which attract the most responses.

Whenever you find a post which attracts a large response, you may want to make it a habit to post similar updates.

5 Important Insight Metrics

Total Fans And Unsubscribed Fans

One of the most useful charts is the number of fans you have and the number of unsubscribed fans. Depending on the type of page you have and the level activity on your page, you will tend to see different growth charts. One of the most important levels to monitor is the percentage of fans who’ve unsubscribed. If this percentage is increasing over time, you may want to check out the type of content you’re posting as well as the volume of posts. While posting often is important, you can chase fans away by posting too often.

Interactions

As the number of fans on your Facebook page increases, the number of users interacting with your page should increase as well. Whether it’s comments, wall posts, or likes, you can view the number of interactions on your Facebook Page by viewing the “interactions” graph. This graph tends to be pretty useful for seeing how well you are engaging users on your Facebook page and also happens to be the default graph when you view your page insights.

Interactions Per Post

This happens to be one of my favorite charts. If you’re fan base is growing you should also slowly improve the quality of your posts as you see how fans respond. It can be a misleading chart though as interactions per post should increase proportionally to the number of fans you have. Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t show any percentage charts but basic division will give you that information. If your interactions per post aren’t increasing over time then you aren’t doing a good job of producing valuable content. Tomorrow I’ll be discussing content strategy more in depth if this is an area where you are having problems.

Page Views

If you’re a webmaster there is no doubt that you have spent countless hours working with Google Analytics. The page view has become one of the standard measures of success on the internet. This chart is pretty straight forward as it depicts the total number of pageviews to your Facebook Page. Whether it’s new fans or existing fans, all page views are grouped into this metric. As you grow your page, the total number of daily page views should be increasing as well.

Demographics

One of the best features of Facebook page insights is the ability to track the demographics of your fan base. While Facebook has the breakdown of your fans’ demographics as percentages you can also view the absolute number of users within your Facebook page by their gender and age. By viewing the demographics chart you will be able to see which demographic groups are growing quickest as well as which demographic groups are the largest.

Daily Task

Spend some time navigating your Facebook Page metrics. To get there, click on “See All” from within the “Insights” box on the left-hand side of your Facebook Page.