Source: Annette Dunlap, NCDA&CS Food Business Specialist, NCDA&CS, 7/6/15


Likes. Shares. Comments. Each one of these metrics plays a role in understanding how effective your
Facebook page is as a marketing tool. But social media gurus tell us that the metric that gives us the
most insight about how well we're marketing our message through Facebook is the one that measures
engagement.

Engagement is reaching out and getting personal with your followers. It is building the conversation with
them. And when you have effectively engaged your target audience, they will comment and talk about
your posts.

People who talk about and share your posts are building on your story for you. Those shared posts
show up in their friends' newsfeeds. In other words, they've given you great word of mouth advertising.
To find out who is talking about your posts, you can click on the arrow next to "People" on your
Facebook page. Take a look at the "People Talking About This" metric. There is generally a 48-hour lag
time between a new post and when this number will change. The beauty of this metric is that it is public.
So, you can track the engagement of your competitors, too.

For example, the screen shots below are from the Facebook pages of local brands for a particular
condiment.

As you can see from the screen shots, the Facebook page for the company on the left, has the largest
total number of likes, but the Facebook page for the company on the right has the highest level of
engagement of the three companies. The middle company has added the most likes over the last week,
but it needs to find some way to convert those likes to engagement.

Boosting your Engagement
There are a couple of ways you can work to boost your engagement. One way is to try what is called an
A/B test. Send out a post and track its engagement. A few days later, send out a similar message, but
with a different photo or text, and then look to see how engaged your audience is. Another way is to
see what is getting engagement from your competitors or even from non-direct competitor food
companies. They may have found a way to engage that would work for you, too.

All marketing is some form of trial and error. The transparency offered through Facebook and the quick
feedback on metrics provide opportunities to monitor your success and move quickly to improve your
reach, your message, and your engagement.