When it comes to social media, it’s no surprise that each platform has its own set of terms and trackable metrics. We wanted to give you an overview of key terms to know within Facebook. This glossary does not by any means cover all the major terms within Facebook – just the ones we look at in our Facebook reporting. Also, these terms apply to organic Facebook – we’ll dive in to Facebook Advertising at another time!

So without further ado…

Post: Individual messages that are showcased on the main Facebook Business Page. Posts can also be considered “status updates” that are seen by a certain percentage of people that Like your Page. A post can be different types of content, including (but not limited to):

• Links to sources outside of Facebook (news articles, blog posts, your business’ website, etc.)
• Images or graphics related to your business
• Video of/related to your business
• Photo Carousel – add more than one photo to a certain post

Reach: The number of people who had any posts from your page enter their screen. Think of Reach as the number of unique views of your content.

Impressions: The number of times your content is displayed, whether it was clicked or not. The key thing to remember about Impressions is that one person could view the same content multiple times. This is why the number if Impressions is almost always higher than the Reach. For deeper insight into Reach vs. Impressions, click on over to this great Sprout Social article.

Page Likes vs. Page Followers: There are actually two ways that a person can opt into your page. If a person Likes your Page, they are showing their support for your Page and want to see content from it. The fact that they Like your Page will be shown in their About section on the individual’s profile. Page Followers are a little different; when someone Likes your Page, they may receive updates about your Page in their news feed. When a person Likes your Page, they automatically become a Follower – but technically, someone could be a Follower without Liking the Page. For our purposes, we typically focus more on the Page Likes rather than the Page Followers.

Engagement: Action that is taken on the Posts on your page. The types of engagement activities that we typically look at are:

• Reaction: A quick-hit way for an individual to interact with your Post. Reactions on Facebook include Like, Love, Wow, Funny, Sad, and Angry.
• Comment: An individual makes a comment on a Post.
• Share: An individual shares your post on their own Timeline, another person’s Timeline, or on another Facebook Business Page.
• Click: An individual clicks on your post to view it in more detail, or they click on something within the post (a link, for example).
• 3-Second Video View: A video that you publish is viewed for at least 3 seconds.

We hope you found this overview helpful! Got more questions about Facebook? Give us a call – we’re happy to help!