Your Handy Guide to
Facebook Marketing
Whether you’re a novice or experienced
Facebook marketer, it’s easy to get tripped up on
terminology. The social network has an extensive
vocabulary that you’ll probably never be quizzed
on, but knowing the difference between terms
such as “total reach” and “organic reach” will
impact your Facebook strategy.
We’ve compiled some of the most commonly
used Facebook terms that you’ll come across as
a marketer. Our resource is broken up into
sections for convenience: General, Pages, and
Insights.
General Definitions
This section might be a bit of a refresher for most
readers. But if you or your admins are new to
Facebook, it’s good to get acquainted with these
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terms as soon as possible.
1. Account Settings: Your settings are used to
manage basic account preferences. Here you
can edit your name or email, change your
notification preferences, turn on extra security
features, and more.
2. App: Facebook Apps are created by third
parties and add more features and functionality
to your Facebook experience.
3. Badge: A Badge is a personalized box you
create to share your Facebook profile, photos, or
Page on other websites.
4. Chat: Chat is a feature that lets you send
instant messages to your friends.
5. Event: Use the Event feature to organize
events, gather RSVPs, respond to invites, and
keep up with what your friends are doing.
6. Follow: Follow is a way to hear from people
you’re interested in, even if you’re not friends.
The Follow button is always a way to finetune
your News Feed to get the types of updates you
want to see.
7. Friend: Friends are people you connect and
share with on Facebook. You can send as well as
receive Friend requests from other Facebook
members.
8. Groups: Facebook Groups make it easy to
connect with specific sets of people, such
as coworkers. They’re dedicated spaces where
you can share updates, photos, and documents
as well as message other Group members.
9. Like: Clicking Like is a way to give positive
feedback and connect with things you care
about. When you Like something, the action
appears as an update on your Timeline. Liking a
post means you were interested in what a friend
was talking about (even if you didn’t leave a
comment). Liking a Page means you’re
connecting to that Page, so you’ll start to see its
stories in your News Feed. The Page will also
appear on your Profile, and you’ll appear on the
Page as a person who Likes that Page.
10. Messages: Messages are similar to private
email messages. They appear in your Facebook
Inbox and can include text messages, chats,
emails, and mobile messages from your
Facebook Friends.
11. News Feed: Your News Feed is a constantly
updating list of stories in the middle of your
homepage. It includes status updates, photos,
videos, links, App activities, and Likes from the
people, Pages, and Groups you’re associated
with.
12. Notes: The Notes feature lets you publish
messages in richtext
format, giving you greater
flexibility than simple updates allow. In addition to
formatting your text, you can add photos and tag
other people in your note.
13. Notifications: Notifications are updates
about activity on Facebook. For example, you
can be notified when an update is made to a
Group you belong to or when someone accepts
your Friend request. While you can’t turn off
notifications entirely, you can adjust what you’re
notified about and how.
14. Poke: People use the Poke feature when
they want to get someone’s attention or say
hello. When you Poke someone, they’ll receive a
notification letting them know that they’ve been
poked and by whom.
15. Profile: Your Profile is your collection of
photos, stories, and experiences that tell your
story. It includes your Timeline, profile picture,
biography, and personal information. It can be
public or private, but is only for noncommercial
use.
16. Search: Search is a tool to find people,
posts, photos, places, Pages, Groups, apps, and
events on Facebook.
17. Social Plugins: Social Plugins are tools that
other websites can use to provide people with
personalized and social experiences. When you
interact with social plugins, you share your
experiences off Facebook with your friends on
Facebook.
18. Tagging: A tag links a person, Page, or
place to something you post, like a status update
or photo. For example, you can tag a photo to
say who’s in it or post a status update and say
who you’re with or where you are.
19. Ticker: The Ticker is positioned on the right
side of your homepage and is updated with your
friends’ activities in realtime.
You can use it to
keep up with the latest news as it happens, listen
to music with your friends, or hover over a story
to join in the conversation.
20. Timeline: Your Timeline is where you can
see your posts or posts you’ve been tagged in
displayed by date. It’s also part of your Profile.
21. Timeline Review: This is a tool that lets you
approve or reject posts that you’ve been tagged
in before they go on your Timeline. When people
you’re not friends with tag you in a post, they
automatically go to Timeline review.
22. Top Story: Top Stories include the stories
published since you last checked News Feed
that Facebook’s algorithm thinks you’ll find
interesting. These items might be different
depending on how long it’s been since you last
visited your News Feed.
23. Trending: Trending shows you a list of topics
and hashtags that have recently spiked in
popularity on Facebook. This is a personalized
list based on your location, Pages you’ve liked,
and what’s trending across Facebook.
Pages Definitions
Although your Facebook Page is just one of
many aspects of the social network, it has a lot of
its own terminology and features. This section
focuses on the most important terms that you
and your team need to know.
24. About Section: This section contains basic
information that’ll help visitors quickly learn about
your Facebook Page. Different types of basic
information will appear in your Page’s About
section depending on your Page’s category.
25. Activity Log: The Activity Log helps you
manage your Page’s Timeline. It shows you a
complete list of posts and comments by your
Page, including posts you’ve hidden. Only people
who help manage your Page can see the Activity
Log.
26. Boost Post: Boosted posts appear higher in
News Feed so there’s a better chance that your
audience will see them. You can boost any post
you create on your Page, including status
updates, photos, videos, and offers. The cost to
boost a post depends on how many people you
want to reach.
27. Checkins:
This action announces a
person’s location to their Facebook friends. If
your Page includes an address, it will appear in a
list of possible locations to check into when
people are nearby. Once someone has checked
in, a story (definition below) will be created in
their friends’ News Feeds.
28. Cover Photo: This is the large picture at the
top of your Page. All cover photos are public,
which means that anyone visiting your Page will
be able to see it. Best practices include using a
unique image that represents your brand.
29. Liked by Page: This section features all of
the other Pages that you, as the Page, Like.
30. Milestone: Milestones are a special type of
Page post that lets you highlight key moments on
your Page’s Timeline. You can use milestones to
share important events that tell the story of your
Page is about.
31. Offer: Certain businesses, brands, and
organizations can share discounts with their
customers by posting an offer on their Facebook
Page. When someone claims an offer, they’ll
receive an email that they can show at the
Page’s physical location to get the discount.
32. Page: Facebook Pages help businesses,
organizations, and brands share their stories and
connect with people. Like profiles, you can
customize Pages by posting stories, hosting
events, adding apps, and more. People who like
your Page can get updates in their News Feeds.
33. Page Admin: When you create a Page, you
automatically become the Page’s admin, which
means only you can change how the Page looks
and post as the Page. You can then assign roles
to other people to help you manage your Page.
34. Page Roles: There are five different roles for
people who help manage Facebook Pages.
These roles include admin, editor, moderator,
advertiser, and analyst. Any person assigned to
these roles will log into their own personal
accounts and work on the Page from there.
35. Pin to Top: Any post that you pin will move
to the top of your Page’s Timeline and a “pinned”
icon will appear in the topright
corner of the
post. Your pinned post will stay at the top of your
Page’s Timeline for seven days. After that, it’ll
return to the date it was posted on your Page’s
Timeline. Only posts created by your Page can
be pinned; posts that other people add to your
Page aren’t supported by the feature.
36. Post Attribution: Your posts, Likes, and
comments on your Page’s timeline will be
attributed to the Page itself — even if you’re
logged into Facebook as yourself and not the
Page. Whether you’re creating a post or scrolling
through News Feed, you can choose to act as a
Page or as yourself from a convenient dropdown
box.
Under Page Settings > Post Attribution, you can
change the default to post as the individual rather
than the Page. With this enabled, when anyone
who manages your Page creates a post or
comments, it’ll be attributed to that individual
rather than the Page.
37. Posts to Page: Posts to Page are any posts
made to your Page by someone other than an
admin. This way, your Timeline will showcase
messages and content from your brand only. Any
questions or feedback from customers will be
found in the Posts to Page section on the lefthand
side of your Page.
38. Suggested Edits: People viewing Pages
with locations that they can check into may see
the option to suggest edits. This lets people
suggest information that might be missing, such
as a category, phone number, or address. If
multiple people make the same suggestion, this
information can be added to your Page to help
other people find it. Page admins can confirm or
remove information that’s been suggested.
39. Tabs: These are sections that come with
your Page when you create it. They keep your
Page organized and help people see specific
content types, like photos and events.
40. Verified Page: Some Pages and profiles are
verified by Facebook to let people know that
they’re authentic. These can include celebrities
and public figures, global brands and
businesses, and media. Once verified, you’ll see
a blue badge next to your Page’s name.
Insights Definitions
While Facebook Insights is similar to traditional
web analytics data offerings, some of the
terminology is unique to the platform. To make
sure you’re not confused by any of the
information you find in your Insights data, the
following definitions should help make things
more clear.
Analyzing Your Audience
From demographic characteristics to where they
were before they came to your Page, Facebook
Insights offers you a wide variety of metrics to
help you analyze your Page’s audience. The
following terms will help you understand what the
data provided through Insights means so you can
use it more effectively.
41. Cities/Countries: This is the number of
people who saw any content about your Page
grouped by country or city, based on IP address.
42. Daily Active Users: This metric is the
number of people who have viewed or interacted
with your Facebook Page on a specific day. It’s
categorized by the type of action they perform.
43. Engaged Users: This is the number of
engaged individuals who have clicked anywhere
on one of your Facebook Page posts. For
example, someone could have Liked one of your
posts, commented on it, or shared it.
44. External Referrers: External referrers are
the number of views your Facebook Page
received from website URLs that aren’t part of
Facebook.com.
45. Fans: In Page Insights, and other places on
Facebook, “fans” is another way to refer to the
people who Like your Page.
46. Friends of Fans: This shares the number of
unique individuals who are friends with people
who Like your Facebook Page. These people
represent the total potential reach of content you
publish to your Page.
47. Gender and Age: These demographic
metrics detail the percentage of people who saw
any content about your Page for each age and
gender bracket, based on the information people
enter in their personal profiles.
48. Language: This is the number of people who
saw any content about your Page grouped by
language, based on default language settings.
49. Like Sources: This is the number of times
your Facebook Page was Liked, categorized by
where the Like occurred during a specific date
range. This lets you see whether the Likes come
from your Page itself, from your website, or from
other sources.
50. Monthly Active Users: This is the number of
people who have viewed your Facebook Page or
interacted with it during the previous 30 days. By
tracking this metric, you can determine the
degree to which your Facebook influence
fluctuates monthly or seasonally.
51. Net Likes: This is the difference between the
number of people who have Liked your Page and
the number who unliked it over a specific period.
52. New Likes: This total is the number of
unique individuals who Liked your Facebook
Page during a specific date range that you set
yourself.
53. Organic Reach: Organic reach is the
number of unique individuals who saw a specific
post from your Page on their News Feeds,
tickers, or directly on their Pages.
54. Other Clicks: This is a measurement of
clicks not on the content of your Facebook Page
post, but rather of clicks on the Page title or to
“see more.”
55. Paid Reach: This is the number of unique
individuals who saw a specific post from your
Page through a paid source like a Facebook Ad
or Promoted Post.
56. Post Reach: This is the number of people
who have seen your post. You post counts as
reaching someone when it’s shown in their News
Feed. Figures displayed in Insights are for the
first 28 days after a post was created and include
people viewing your post on desktop and mobile.
57. Reach: Reach is the number of people who
received impressions (definition below) of a Page
post. Reach might be less than impressions
since one person can make multiple impressions.
58. Story: This term is used to reference the
ways people can interact with your Page,
including:
Liking your Facebook Page
Liking, commenting on, or sharing a post
from your Page
Answering a question you asked on your
Page
Responding to an event you posted on
your Page
Mentioning your Page within their own
posts
Tagging your Page in an uploaded
picture
Checking in to or recommending your
Page
59. Total Likes: This is the number of unique
individuals who have clicked the button to Like
your Facebook Page.
60. Total Reach: Total reach is the number of
unique individuals who have actually seen any
content related to your Facebook Page. This
includes content published on your Page as well
as Facebook Ads and Promoted Posts that lead
people to your Page.
The sum of Post Reach won’t equal Total Reach
because Pages can reach people through
content other than posts. For instance, if
someone visits a Page after searching for it,
they’ll be counted in Total Reach but not Post
Reach. Also, if someone sees more than one
Page post, they’ll be counted in Post Reach for
each post they see, but they’ll only be counted
once in Total Reach.
61. Unlikes: This is the number of unique
individuals who have unliked your Facebook
Page during a specific date range.
62. When Your Fans Are Online: This shows
you when the people who Like your Page are on
Facebook content.
63. Where Your Page Likes Happened: This is
the number of times your Facebook Page was
Liked, broken down by where it happened.
People can Like your Page using the Like button
on your Page or from Page suggestions, ads,
and stories about others who have Liked your
Page.
64. Viral Reach: Viral reach is the number of
unique individuals who saw a specific post from
your Page through a story published by one of
their Facebook friends.
Measuring Content and Engagement
It’s also helpful to learn which content you
publish on your Page is most popular and
creates the most engagement from your
audience. The following Facebook terms explain
some of the most popular Insights metrics that
you can use to measure content performance
and engagement levels.
65. Audience Retention: This metric details
views of your video at each moment as a
percentage of all views, including videos shorter
than three seconds.
66. Daily Page Activity: This breaks down the
different ways people engaged with your
Facebook Page on a specific day other than by
commenting on or Liking your posts. You’ll be
able to see when fans post to your Page, upload
photos or videos to your Page (if enabled), write
reviews, or mention your Page in updates of their
own or to friends.
67. Daily Story Feedback: This breaks down
how people responded to your stories by
engaging with them (through Likes or comments)
or unsubscribing from them (which means your
Page stories won’t appear in their News Feeds in
the future), on a specific day.
68. Impressions: Impressions are the number of
times a post from your Page is displayed,
whether the post is clicked or not. People may
see multiple impressions of the same post. For
example, someone might see a Page update in
News Feed once, and then a second time if their
friend shares it.
69. Media Consumption: This is the number of
times a piece of media content that you
published on your Page – including a video,
photo, or audio clip – is clicked and viewed on a
specific day.
70. Page Content or Post Feedback: This is
the number of Likes and comments on stories
published in your Page’s News Feed during the
time period you select.
71. Page Views: Page views are the total
number of times your Facebook Page was
viewed during the time period you select.
72. Pages to Watch: This helps you compare
the performance of your Page and posts with
similar Pages on Facebook.
73. Post Views: Post views are the number of
times a story published on your Facebook Page
News Feed was viewed during the time period
you select.
74. Tab Views: This is the total number of times
each tab in your Facebook Page was viewed
when people were logged in to Facebook during
the time period you select.
75. Video Views: This is the total number of
times a video posted by your Page was viewed
for three seconds or more.
Learn more about Sprout Social’s Facebook
management and Facebook analytics features
here.
