Anyone who admins a Facebook fan page probably saw the crazy new analytics that are built into it… I wonder what you think?
Initial Thoughts
A powerful new tool that starts making the “Facebook experience” seem like an all encompassing platform that might still wreak a lot more change the way people use the internet.
Facebook is turning into a newer (and much more powerful) version of Yahoo in its prime. Facebook’s main competitor is shaping up to be “sites that are not Facebook” or another potential name: “the rest of the internet.”
Facebook’s stickiness is going to cause a LOT of money to be spent here, but to be honest I’ve gotten poor ROI on Facebook thus far (for the types of services I’ve been marketing). Admittedly, it is hard to measure the brand awareness that Facebook advertising might have created initially (that might have converted to customers later).
On a personal level I kind of resent the desire to quantify what I enjoy as a social community experiment…. but then again my facebook fan page is still more of a hobby than anything. Most of the work I do is for a service industry that gets support from the FB fan page, but the sales process is contingent on an “in person” relationship which dwarfs the impact of a positive FB brand experiment.
WHO WILL BENEFIT MOST: I think local restaurants/stores/services – anyone who might benefit from a groupon.com promotion or a high yelp.com rating- will really benefit from the new Facebook analytics tool.
The Analytics Tools – Facebook Helps You Understand “What Makes You Popular”
The tools are all there – just like Google Analytics – but less intuitive. Instead of the usual GA fare, it seems focused on tracking which “types” of messages you broadcast and how people respond (by %s of people sharing, talking)… it seems really geared towards quantifying this social element… it’s almost like your page is trying to win a popularity contest and Facebook is telling you “say more of this.”
This could be used for testing and research for brand messaging and even could provide research topolitical campaigns.
More to come as I continue to play around with Facebook “Brand” Page Analytics.