Facebook Marketing

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.