Week 6A: Reach vs Engagement

In relation to Facebook insight, there are two metrics that can give a better understanding of the business page strength.  They are post reach and post engagement.  Post reach is the concept of views for the post.  That's it, just how many times a post has been looked at or has "reached" the customer. This number only indicates the success of spreading the word and does not necessarily dictate a strong customer base.  What does dictate the strength of content is the post engagement.  Post engagement is when a post is shared, liked, commented, or any sort of action is done on the customer end.  The two do not necessarily go hand in hand as you can have a high reach number but very low engagement.  It all depends on strength of content and marketability.

It's important to know the different because those two insight metrics can aid a business owner in increase sales and customer base (or vice versa).  If a business is having low reach, that means that the word isn't getting around enough.  This is when many will consider using a third party service to help spread the word and increase marketing.  When the reach is very high but the engagement is low, then there is an indication that the content isn't drawing the customers in.  The business is getting all these looks but for some reason, there isn't anything triggering a customer response.  This is an indicator that the content needs to be changed to appeal better to customers.

Let's say that a new pizza shop opened up in San Diego.  This pizza shop created a facebook page but traffic (reach) was low after several months.  The pizza shop hired a third party service who began advertising the webpage to better adjust to the changing algorithm which in turn generated thousands of views.  The owner was happy but for some reason, the store was still empty.  After researching, he finds that the reason his store is empty is because the word isn't being spread.  Even with the higher traffic, his webpage or posts aren't being spread or even liked.  He hires a consultant who notices that his posts are very generic and uninviting.  The consultant recommends posting staged pictures of his food and putting up offers on his facebook page for people to share and claim.  After fulfilling the recommendations, the owner sees a spike in his engagement has people are sharing and liking his pizza offers and commenting how delicious his pizza looks.  He also notices a huge increase in customers at the shop due to spread of word.