4 Facebook metrics your nonprofit shouldn’t overlook

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, Facebook users.

You may have heard of the term “social media ROI calculator.” It refers to a method of figuring out whether you’re getting an adequate return on investment for your organization’s investment in Facebook, blogging, Twitter or other social media.

The trouble is, most of these ROI calculations include factors for investments and gains, but not many include factors for loss. This means that any “collateral damage” of your campaign might often be overlooked.

Let’s consider an example. Imagine you have a fundraising campaign that includes a Facebook component. A partner gives you $2,000 toward Facebook ads. After the campaign is over, you walk away with $20,000 in donations from these ads.

But you also ticked off hundreds of people.

Financial success in this example is one thing, but without considering negative comments received during the campaign, a true ROI calculation can’t be made.

What are the loss metrics in Facebook?

Facebook has four data points that show you how people negatively reacted to your post:

• Hiding your post
• Hiding all posts from your page
• Reporting your post as spam
• Unliking your page

You can find these in Facebook Insights under the Engagement column.

Why does this matter?

You might be asking why this matters within the scope of growing your community and raising money. Negative feedback shows you how you are hurting the growth of your community (if at all). It also helps you fine-tune your content strategy with a more holistic understanding of your fan base.

What do you think?John Haydon delivers social web strategy solutions for “the quick, the smart, and the slightly manic.” Curious? Then visit the John Haydon blog, follow him on Twitter or leave a comment.