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Views, Reach, and Engagement — Use Your Professional Dashboard to Grow Your Following!

Reach, saves, and engagement
Reach, saves, and engagement

What makes a page grow on social media? An audience that can relate to you and connect with your small business! They will tell their friends about your page. Furthermore, the algorithm will favor your content and your reach will increase.

How can you ensure your page resonates with your target demographics? By consistently posting valuable content they enjoy and relate to.


And how can you tell which posts your audience is enjoying and relating to? By checking out your Professional Dashboard!


Your business’s Facebook and Instagram profiles are loaded with metrics that tell you everything you need to know about who’s following you — and how you can make the best content for them.


But it’s not enough to just read your page metrics…you need to understand and use the information they give you! Are you ready? Let's get started.


When Should I Post? Finding Your Pages’ Active Times

Let’s start with one of the most common questions I hear — “When should I post on Facebook and Instagram?!” It’s a valid question. But the reality is…it depends!


Everyone has different social media habits. Luckily, Facebook and Instagram can give you some insight into when your followers are most likely to be online.


All you need to do is check your pages’ Active Times.


Find Your Facebook Active Times

To figure out when your followers spend time on Facebook, you’ll need to check your Professional Dashboard. The following directions are for smartphone users, but it is similar on a desktop.


First, open your Facebook Menu and switch to your Business Page. Once you do that, you’ll see a new option pop up — Professional Dashboard.






From here, tap “Insights” at the top. Then, scroll down until you see “Followers” and tap “See All.”









Scroll toward the bottom and you’ll see a graph titled “Most Active Time.”





That’ll tell you the days of the week when most of your followers are online — and the best days to post on your Facebook page.


Find Your Instagram Active Times

Instagram also gives business accounts a Professional Dashboard. But, it looks a little different than Facebook’s.


To find out when your followers are most active on Instagram, open your profile and tap “Professional Dashboard” right under your bio.






From here, tap “Total Followers” under “Insights.”






Scroll to the bottom, and you’ll see a bar graph.


It’s similar to the one you see on Facebook, but with one big difference — you can tap through the different days of the week. That means you don’t only get the best days to post…you also get the best time to post on each day!






So you have the answer to the age-old question, “when should I post?!”


Now, it’s time to use your individual post metrics to decide what to post to grow your page.


Finding Individual Post Metrics

You can see how many likes, comments, and shares any Facebook or Instagram post has. But to really understand what your audience likes, you need to dive a little deeper.


The wording will be a little different depending on which platform you’re using, but the process is generally the same for both.


If you’re on Facebook, be sure you’re acting as your Business page. If you’re on Instagram, make sure you’re logged into your business account.


Then, visit your Page or profile and scroll down to any of your posts. Look underneath the photo or video, and you’ll see “See insights and ads” (for Facebook) or “View insights” for Instagram.









This will open a part of your Professional Dashboard that lets you check post-specific metrics.








You know where to find ‘em — now here’s what to look for.


What Post Metrics Should I Look at?

You’ll see a ton of metrics for each post on your page. But, what’s important to keep track of, and what can you ignore?


If you want to grow your page, I recommend focusing on three things — Views, Reach, and engagement.


Views

Let’s start with the easy one. “Views” are exactly what they sound like: the number of times people have viewed a post!




Views can come from a couple of different places. One view could mean your post appeared on a follower’s timeline, or it could mean it popped up as a “Suggested” post for someone who’s never heard of you before.


The important thing to remember here is that each view does NOT equal one unique user who saw your post.


For example, let’s say your post was suggested to someone who doesn’t follow you — that first impression gives you one view.


That same person could decide to click on your page, and then look at the same post again.


You’d now have TWO views, but you’d have only reached ONE person.


Reach

A lot of people confuse “Views” with “Reach.” And while they are similar, there’s one important difference.


While Views count each individual time someone sees your post, Reach doesn’t account for those repeat viewers.


Someone could see your post on their timeline, again on their page, and even come back to it weeks later.


Although this will give you three unique Views, it only counts toward your Reach once — that’s why your Reach is always lower than or equal to your Views.





Which is More Important: Views or Reach?

Views and Reach are both essential metrics to look at when you’re trying to grow your brand online.


But, they tell you different things about how your content resonates with followers.


Views tell you how valuable the content is to your audience. If you have 1,500 Views and have only reached 200 people, it tells you that people are coming back to see it again.


This is especially important for those promotional posts. If you have a lot of repeat viewers on an event or sale flyer, you can probably expect a lot of people to come to your event or take advantage of a promotion!


Reach tells you how people are engaging with your content — and how the algorithm is treating it as a result.


Algorithms push posts that people interact with toward the top. If you have a consistently high Reach, it’s a sign that the algorithm is pushing your post to most of your followers’ timelines!


Engagement

Likes, comments, shares, and saves…it all counts as engagement!


All engagement is good engagement. But if you’re trying to grow your page, some types of engagement are better than others.


Liking a post is the easiest way to engage with it. But, likes don’t tell you very much about how your followers are connecting with a piece of content.


If someone comments on your post, it means they liked it enough to let you know!


Comments are the best way for you to get to know your followers on a deeper level — so if someone leaves a comment, encourage them to leave more by replying.


See a little bookmark icon on an Instagram post? That means someone saved your post. This lets you know there’s something about the post that made them want to come back to it later.





Maybe it’s details on an upcoming event, or maybe it’s a product they want to buy for a friend’s birthday — whatever the reason may be, it’s safe to say your followers find a post valuable if they take the time to save it!


Sharing your post is arguably the most valuable type of engagement a follower can give you — for a few different reasons.


  1. It shows they like the post enough to share it with a friend or family member.

  2. It exposes your page to even more people (and potential clients).

  3. It tells the algorithm to push your post higher on the timeline!


If you want more visibility and faster growth for your page, focus on creating content that people will want to share.


Understand What Your Audience Likes

Now that you know what metrics to keep track of, you can use them to start learning what types of content your audience likes the best.


Are your “Style Tip” Reels getting lots of Views and Shares? “This or That” posts sparking conversation in the comments? That’s a sign that they’re resonating with your audience — and that you should keep posting them!


On the other hand, maybe your inspirational quotes are only reaching 10% of your followers. Or perhaps your #OOTDs are averaging two likes and 20 views.


If that’s the case, it’s a sign to limit how often you post that type of content — and increase how often you post content that performs well.


Should I Only Post What Does Well?

Despite how it might seem, social media isn’t all about the numbers.


The point of social media is in the name — to be social!

I have one golden rule when it comes to social media: show the real YOU whenever you can.


Let your face and personality shine through so your followers can get to know the person behind the brand!


So while you do want to be strategic about what you post, you should never feel like you’re being inauthentic.


That picture of your cat or funny fashion meme might not get the most attention, but it will tell your followers more about who they’re supporting when they work with your small business.


If you really love a picture or video, go ahead and share it!


The Numbers Never Lie!

Knowing and understanding page metrics is key to growing your business’s Facebook or Instagram page.


All those hearts sure are nice, but focusing on likes alone won’t help you build your brand.


People need to SEE your content to interact with it, so create helpful, shareable content that’ll drive up your Views and Reach!


Figure out when your audience is online, the types of content they like (and don’t like), and if you want the best performance, sprinkle YOURSELF in wherever possible.


Post selfies, videos of yourself using your product, and anything else that’ll tell your followers more about who you are.


Keep this in mind, and make checking your metrics a regular part of your social media strategy. You’ll start seeing growth in no time!

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