Written by ContentPowered.com
The popular social media giant Facebook has offered analytics through its popular Facebook Insights application for many years. In the past, the application has not had the capability to offer real-time analytics. It could sometimes take up to four days before one was able to learn if a new marketing approach was working.
With this large delay, Facebook Insights used to not be up-to-date enough to show much benefit for users who rely heavily on Facebook for their business needs. Through the implementation of many improvements made to the Facebook interface, however, this changed. The help of a much needed Facebook interface update allowed the Facebook Insights application to be updated in real-time and became a godsend for users who wished to discover the absolute best strategies to attract and hold the attention of users.
The Semi Real-Time Update
Early last year, Facebook released an update that granted several features of the Facebook Insights application the ability to update in real-time. Some of these features included statistics on the number of viewers each new post was generating, the number of people sharing posts, and even user demographics. These new updates now report to Facebook owners in under ten minutes.
Real-Time User Statistics
Facebook Insights offers users a real time look into who is viewing their page. This feature is remarkably useful for those who need to know within hours if their current marketing strategy is working or not. Waiting four or five days to find out if a new approach is working could mean the loss of thousands of dollars for businesses who rely on Facebook marketing. Thanks to the changes of Facebook Insight, users can now know within minutes if what they are doing is on par with their goal.
One of the main benefits to the real-time analytics of posts is the ability for users to determine if they need to change their strategy. Folks have been known to spend thousands on marketing ideas and designs. With real-time analytics, users are able to near-instantly determine if and what about their approach is working. If it’s failing, they can even go in and change their strategy before wasting those thousands of dollars (and fans). Thanks to Facebook Insights real-time analytics, users will no longer risk these damaging possibilities.
Real-Time User Demographics
Many users need to know if their fans are in their targeted demographic area. With the recent Facebook interface update, real-time demographics on Facebook fans can be at the touch of user’s fingerprints in a matter of minutes. Facebook Insights lets user see where their fans are located through location-based services. Are fans localized or are the majority of fans spread our throughout the world? With real-time analytics, users are able to see if their targeted marketing approach is working to adequately reach their demographic goal.
Real-time demographics not only reveal a viewer’s location, but they can also reveal a viewer’s age and sex as well. If a company that has mostly targeted to female audiences in the past recently released a clothing line tailored to a male audience, they are able to use real-time analytics to see how well their marketing approach is targeting the male audience they are trying to capture.
Real-Time Comment Analytics
With the recent move to real-time statistics, Facebook also offers real-time information on comments as well. Users are able to obtain detailed statistics centering on how many users interact on a post. In addition, they are able to see how many people saw the comments on a post and clicked on the “see more” button to view even more content. These real-time updates give users a true idea of the type of interaction users are making with their content.
Promoting Analytics
Yet another advantage to Facebook Insights’ real-time analytics is the ability to improve upon what is working. By spending a little bit of money, users can explore their real-time analytical statistics and promote certain posts that seem to be attracting more views and interaction. This can be done by presenting the post to the friends of people who have already liked your page or even a specific target group of people of their choosing. This is all made possible by the addition of real-time analytics, making Facebook marketing that much more profitable and valuable for businesses.
Real-Time Statistics vs. Historical Data
Users who have been reaping the benefits of Facebook Insights for quite a while are able to compare their current, real-time analytics with the frozen data from years past. If a marketing strategy has worked in the past but does not seem to be working today, users can dive into their history and see exactly what it is they are doing different today – and what about it isn’t working. Real-time statistics allows these users enough time to change their strategy back to what it once was in order to target their audience the way that has been known to work.
There are a multitude of benefits associated with Facebook Insights’ real-time analytics. Users have seen and reported greatly positive results since the major social networking company switched to real-time statistics. Rather than waiting four to five days, users are now able to see within a matter of minutes if their marketing approach is working. With these features and benefits, there is no reason why businesses and individuals should not make the move and try out this wonderful new tool.
