by By Alexis Stinnett
With the rise of social media comes an immense amount of data that can often be confusing at times. When working on social media campaigns, either as a PR professional or as a business owner, learning how to view and use your data effectively is essential for creating successful social media campaigns. In this post, I will walk you through the step-by-step process of gathering data from both Instagram and Facebook, while also discussing how to analyze it in a way that benefits your client or business.
Step One: Access the Meta Business Suite
The first step in this process is to gain access to Meta Business Suite for both Facebook and Instagram. Since Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, this step is relatively east. First, log in to your desired platform, preferably on a computer. To access Meta Business suite from your account, click on the “More” tab in the bottom left-corner. From there, select “Meta Business Suite.” This should direct you to the home page.
Step Two: Finding and Exporting Data
Once you are in the Meta Business Suite, it’s time to locate your data. To do this, first click on “Content.” This will take you to a page where you can view data for each post individually on both Facebook and Instagram. Now, when preparing to analyze your data, it’s important to consolidate it all in one place. This is where the exporting process comes in. To export your data to a spreadsheet, click the “Export Data” Tap in the top-right corner. Once the export window opens, you can choose the settings you would like for the export. The most important part of this process is to make sure the correct date range is set. After verifying your settings are correct click the “Generate” button. It may take a moment to fully load, but that is normal. Repeat this process for both Facebook posts and pages, as well as Instagram posts and stories.
Step Three: Analyzing your Data
The process of analyzing data may vary depending on your company’s goals. However, some of the most important insights come from examining post engagement. Engagement includes likes, comments and shares. This can all be found in the columns of your spreadsheet. It is important to take a broader perspective when you’re analyzing data. For example, if certain posts perform exceptionally well, consider the context of the world at the time of those posts. Additionally, it is also extremely important to look at various trends. Are there certain posts that consistently perform well or poorly? Overall, the way you analyze your data will be a little different depending on your goals, but it is always important to focus on trends and context.
Analyzing data is essential when managing a company’s or brand’s social media. Data provides insights that simply viewing an account cannot. Hopefully, after reading this post, accessing and analyzing your social media data feels like a less daunting task.
Hi Alexis! I really enjoyed reading your post, especially with the upcoming social media audit due date coming up I really appreciated your step-by-step guide on how to collect data. I also really appreciated how you included photos of each step. Particularly your explanation on how to interpret the information that is found, I think the emphasis on looking at trends is really important. Great work!
Hi Alexis, this was a great representation and interpretation surrounding social media and its outlets. This information along with the data can be used to expand engagement for any social media across different platforms. Overall, this info should be the basis for any good social media account.