How to Get The Most Out of a Facebook Post

If you are managing a business’ Facebook account take a step back before posting your next update and have a think about what you really want from that post and how to further optimise it for that need.

The following 3 metrics described are usually how you measure ROI (return on investment) on a specific Facebook post:

  • Post Reach – The number of unique people who have seen a specific post
  • Post Engagement – Likes, comments, shares and clicks on a specific post
  • Website Traffic from Post – Website visitors generated via a specific Facebook post

The metrics described above all support each other, for example, higher post reach correlates with more website traffic or higher engagement correlates with increased post reach, however, this is not always the case. When writing up a status update you need to select one primary metric to measure the post by and tailor everything (text, media, link etc) to meet that objective.

#1 Post Reach

When post reach is the primary objective a business is usually looking to increase it’s brand awareness, brand building and/or page likes.

How to increase

  • Boost the post via Facebook ads.
  • Encourage engagement (preferably sharing), engagement is a big factor in Facebook’s algorithm, higher engagement equals more reach .
  • Post on days and times when more of your fans are online. Facebook Insights > Posts > When Your Fans Are Online > You can view this data here.
  • Analyse the demographics of the people reached in previous posts and tailor your posts for them. Facebook Insights > People > People Reached > You can find this data here.

How to Measure

  • Facebook Insights > Posts > Find the specific post and analyse the reach column.
  • Download the post specific report from Facebook Insights, find the post and analyse the appropriate columns. You may have to search through various sheets but the advantage of this method is that you can analyse paid data and organic data separately and in more detail.

Good Example
BBC Free Speech Facebook Post Reach

#2 Post Engagement

When post engagement is the primary objective a business is usually looking to build trust, gain feedback, increase integrity, improve reputation and/or demonstrate expertise by connecting with fans.

How to Increase

  • There are very distinct differences between posts that are likeable, shareable, conversational and click-able. Think about what you want from the post and tailor it towards that goal. For example, if you are posting content you need to analyse the nature of that content and tailor your caption for it.
  • Include rich media in the post. People always engage more with videos and pictures rather than simple text. Navigate to Facebook Insights > Posts > Post Types > Here you can see which post types receive the most engagement.
  • Analyse the demographics of the people engaged with in previous posts and tailor your posts for them. Facebook Insights > People > People Engaged > You can find this data here.

How to Measure

  • Facebook Insights > Posts > Find the specific post and analyse the engagement column.
  • Download the post specific report from Facebook Insights, find the post and analyse the appropriate columns. You may have to search through various sheets but the advantage of this method is that you can analyse paid data and organic data separately and in more detail.

Good Example
Titanfall Facebook Post Engagement

#3 Website Traffic

When website traffic is the primary objective a business is usually looking to increase it’s traffic and/or sales.

How to Increase

  • Include a website link in your post.
  • Write an enticing caption.
  • Use Facebook open graph on your website to increase likeliness of clicks.
  • Create interesting and unique content on your website that users are more likely to want to visit like articles, videos, competitions etc.

How to Measure

  • Google Analytics can measure how many visitors are coming from Facebook.
  • Facebook Insights also provides this statistic in the External Referrers report under Visits.
  • If you want to measure how many users are visiting your website from each individual post you can create a custom URL to monitor this or by tagging your links using the URL Builder.

Good Example
Website Traffic Facebook Post

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