Facebook Dashboards - A Few Words on Crowdbooster and Pagelever

Pagelever provides additional nuance to managing a Fanpage

It’s funny how Facebook has grown as an essential channel for many small businesses.   It’s understandable.  Users spend on average 7 hours a day in Facebook, according to Mashable.  The data is beyond staggering compared to time spent on a search, leading to many businesses working overtime to not only reach its audience in FB, but also manage its engagement.

Analytics tools have tried to grow to reflect the usage.  There is Facebook Insights, of course, which, in Facebook most significant move, has incorporated Facebook plugin activity into its measurement – you can see how likes and sharing have lead traffic to your fanpage.  But this may not suit every taste – you still need a way to measure traffic towards a particular activity, a behavior in which event tracking can, er, track.

There are now new dashboards becoming available. Most have combined Facebook data into its dashboard, such as Hootsuite Pro and Raventools.  These have developed for the express purpose of combining Google Analytics, Twitter, and Facebook data into one report.

A different approach comes from Pagelever.  I have had the pleasure of using a trial period to review its features.  I am personally pleased by the improvements it offers.  It notes upfront three kinds of page activity -- Growth , Visibility and Engagement. Pagelever then provides nuanced measures in the reports, such as:

• Fastest growing segment –
• Growth sources outside of Facebook properties
• Chart of posts on a fanpage displaying date and impressions

Other graphs abound, such as fan growth which reflects fans unsubscribing from a page, and total/uniques measures for metrics such as impressions and pageviews.  Some of these graphs are not available in Facebook Insights, so you will gain some very impressive traffic information beyond Facebook plugins usage. Furthermore the user interface displays the information with a uncluttered appearance, perfect if you are accessing your Pagelever account on an iPad or tablet.  There is a CSV export available for spreadsheet duty.  The explanations, such as a trend in the newsfeed, are very straightforward and appear in large font.  Users can manage multiple fanpages under administration.

If your needs are only for a few data updates, there are simpler dashboards available.  Crowdbooster, designed primarily for Twitter feed management, includes a Facebook fanpage management feature. I have used Crowdbooster.  Although not as in depth as PageLever, it still provides utility displayed in an equally straightforward manner.  Crowdbooster provides a chart of fanpage impressions vs. comments, and offers posting recommendations, though these suggestions are based on your own Twitter profile performance rather than Fanpage schedules.  It also provides fan growth over time in a chart I think is simpler than that in Facebook Insights. You’ll have to weigh the simplicity against what your analytic needs are to determine if this is a helpful tool to manage your fanpage.

Expect a few posts on Facebook metrics, Edgerank, and how to be a savvy poster, just in time for the holidays! 🙂