So you just drafted a lovely Facebook status, attached a snazzy photo and shared it with all of those awesome people who “like” your page; but did you know that some of those people will never see your hard (crafty) work because they are hiding from you?
Yep, it’s true. And you can find out exactly how many by following these steps:
- Go to your Insights page and look at the bottom-left graph.
- Select Total Fans/Unsubscribed Fans
- Check the yellow “Hidden from Newsfeed” box.
Now that you have this information, what percentage of your brand’s fans are hiding from you? In our experience, an average of 3-8% don’t see your content in their News Feed. This percentage is something to keep your eye on.
If your percentage is higher than 10%, that could be a sign to rethink your Facebook strategy and tonality. Here are some tips to consider when posting on Facebook, back to the basics:
Content: The key is delivering VALUE when, where and how your fans want to receive it. Share interesting, entertaining, informative and relevant content. It’s best to include a visual such as an image, video or thumbnail when posting. Keep it fresh and avoid re-posting the same content. Sound basic? It is. Yet we’ve all been victims of the paragraph-style text only updates that take up four inches in our feed. The hide button is just too tempting when you only have a hot second to check your Facebook feed at work. The essay updates can be a buzz kill.
Frequency: When people “like” your page they are subscribing to get updates from you on a semi-regular basis. This is a privilege and shouldn’t be abused by bombarding fans with updates. You don’t want your brand to seem desperate like it’s trying to hard or has too much time on its hands. (You know what we’re talking about here. We all have family members who fall into this category.) To most, this Facebook behavior results in an automatic “hide” button or even a (gasp) “unlike”. Do you know how many updates you post a week? Do you know how many fans you gain a week? Is there a correlation? Yes, it’s very likely. Pun intended.
Engage: Your fans love to hear about what is going on with you but also ask them what is going on with them. And then, LISTEN to the answer. Ask questions, respond to questions, and overall just be social with your “likes”. They’ll, uh, like it. Many brands don’t respond to comments. So, the expectation is that. It’s an easy way to wow your fans and make them “like” you more. (Then they’ll tell their friends to “like” you.)
Make sure to monitor the “total fans” to “hide” ratio. And the “unsubscribes” (or “unlikes”) to “hides” ratio. The early adopters are likely to be your loyalists and therefore you should experience less “hiders” in the beginning.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent information. Thanks
Glad you found it helpful, Daryl!
Why would the fan click “hide” instead of “unlike”?
Hi there,
that’s a very helpful tip/trick on the Facebook-Insights. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Regards,
Elmar
Anna, Great question. Possibly they don’t want anyone to know they’re no longer a fan. Or, they were incentivized to become a fan but don’t want truly want to consume the brand’s content.
Elmar, Glad you found it useful. Our averages are based on the past several months (across multiple verticals) and we will provide updates if they change.
Hmm. Great insight. You are truly a social media genius. I learn so much from you. Thx!
Is there a way to see who is hiding you, but in your facebook profile? (not fan page).
Hi Mary, Unfortunately, no. There isn’t a way to see who is hiding from you on a personal page.
Thank you, Tommy. I still have plenty to learn as well.
Great article, to the point and I learned something new (didn’t know about the hiding metric!) – thanks!