Understanding Facebook’s Analytics for Stronger Nonprofit Fundraising & Community Engagement

There are many benefits for nonprofit fundraising in maintaining a presence on Facebook and many ways of maximizing that presence which I have highlighted in our Social Media Series posts like 7 Facebook Page Set-Up Tips for Nonprofit Fundraising and 6 Facebook Considerations for Nonprofit Fundraising and Outreach. Interpreting Facebook’s Fan Page Insights can be somewhat daunting but they are crucial to better understanding the strength and reach of the page and the levels of engagement within the page’s community. Although Facebook’s analytics can be quite extensive the following are some key statistics that nonprofits should be accessing on a regular basis:

• REACH

The ‘Reach’ on a fan page lets you know how many people saw any content from your page on their newsfeed and is broken down into three main categories: organic, viral and paid: Organic – This statistic only captures the number of fans and non-fans that have seen any of your postings directly on their newsfeeds and not as a result of your fans liking, commenting or sharing your posts. Viral – This metric measures the number of unique people that have seen content from one of their friends who has liked, commented or shared your posts.

Each of these statistics provides a good picture of the health of your page and the quality of your content. The content that you post will determine whether or not your fans chose to continue viewing it in their newsfeeds or if they turn your page off from appearing in the feeds or un-liking your page all together.

It’s important to understand these numbers and the difference between them as in certain cases the organic reach may not be a true reflection of your fan reach. A close gap between both of these numbers can also represent a lack of exposure to your Facebook page from your website, blog, other social networks and all of your other marketing materials. Promoting your Facebook fan page throughout all marketing initiatives should help improve your overall reach.

• ENGAGEMENT

Listed under ‘Engaged Users’ on your Insights page, this metric represents the number of people who have interacted and clicked anywhere on one of your posts. From liking to commenting or clicking through to a link this all counts towards engagement.

• CLICK-THROUGH RATES

Digital marketers are very familiar with this term and the definition remains the same on Facebook. Clicks can be found when you click on the number under ‘Engaged Users’ and corresponding to a specific post, it will display the number of Clicks which represents the number of people that have clicked on your content whether it be a link, a video or a picture.

This metric can help a nonprofit indentify what content is engaging your audience and what content is working. Also note that that the box containing ‘Clicks’ also contains information on users that provided ‘Negative Feedback’ such as hiding the current post or future posts from their feeds, un-liking your page or reporting it as spam. Depending on the levels of negative feedback, paying attention to this metric may help determine what type of content is not being welcomed by your community.

• TALKING ABOUT THIS

The ‘Talking About This’ statistic is also included in the ‘engagement’ number but only includes the number of unique people that ‘Like’, comment or share your content. Although there has been some Facebook changes recently impacting what is displayed on friends newsfeeds, it may not necessarily translate into expanded reach. This number is important to review and understand as it does reflect how many people are willing to share and spread the word about your organization. The more people that are willing to be ‘Talking About This’, the more people are likely to see your content or visit your page.

Understanding Facebook’s Insights does not have to be daunting, it really is a matter of exploring the different metrics available. Facebook provides some guidance with a light grey ‘?’ for definitions and explanations on what each metric means.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery services, donation caging, donation processing and other donor management services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all contact centre services and mail house operations and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.