In “10 How to Improve EdgeRank in your Facebook Page,” my latest post, I covered how Facebook sorts content in its users’ News Feeds using its EdgeRank algorithm. This post is a follow-up and covers a metric that closely ties with EdgeRank: “People Talking About This,” or PTAT.

What Is ‘People Talking About This’ — PTAT?

Here is how Facebook defines the metric.

“People Talking About Here’s the selection of those who have created a narrative out of your page post.” Stories include:

• Sharing. Shares of your page’s updates, videos, images, and activities.
• Page Likes. Every instance when Facebook users click “Like” in your page.
• Commenting for your post. Comments to Facebook posts and updates.
• Mentions and photo tags. Users tagging your page of their post updates or tagging you of their photos.
• Check-ins. Facebook local check-ins in your Places page.
• Responding to an event. Responding to events — attending, not attending, or unsure.
• Claiming a suggestion. Redeeming a Facebook page offer — the method would involve Facebook emailing the claimed offer.

So whenever any of the above actions are performed by a completely unique user, and thus, a News Feed story is generated, your page’s “People Talking About This” metric goes up by one.

In short, “People Talking About This” is all about fans creating stories about your page.

As an example, in case your fans or maybe non-fans Liked, shared, commented, participated in a poll, attended a Facebook event you hosted, or claimed a proposal out of your page, each unique individual that carries out these actions increases your PTAT number by one. Everyone adds some extent — so a Like and a comment by a fan on a post would add one point for your PTAT count.

A mention of your page as a standing message on fans’ or non fans’ pages without tagging your page is null; however, tagging your page of their status or in a photo they post creates a PTAT point.

The Basics of ‘People Talking About This’

Here are seven key points to keep in mind.

1. People Talking About This reveals only seven days of engagement data. The 1st point to notice about PTAT is that it only shows your page’s engagement performance over seven days and doesn’t give full insight into your page’s performance. In case you were inactive on Facebook for the last week, then your PTAT would reflect it — but this is able to not indicate that your EdgeRank or potential reach is low.

2. PTAT summary data is public. Your PTAT number is publicly displayed for your page for all to look. It’s a simple indicator to decipher recent activity and engagement on a page. In-depth data, however, may be accessed via Facebook Insights.

3. Compare your page’s PTAT together with your competitors. Because PTAT data is publicly available, you could compare your PTAT against your competitors, to get the next understanding of your page’s wider performance. You should use this especially should you would like to transcend comparing page Likes as a comparison metric.

4. Expect 1 to ten percent of your fans to create stories about your page. Even hugely popular Facebook pages expect just a minute fraction in their fans engaging with their posts and activities on Facebook. Reckoning on the type of content you share, your page’s PTAT would likely be 1 percent of your fan base. Consider anything above 1 percent, without assistance from advertising, above average. Anything above 3 percent without promotion indicates good engagement.

5. a close breakdown of your PTAT metrics are available inside the older Facebook Insights. In case you are still using the older Facebook Page Insights tool in your analytics reporting and feature not opted into the hot Facebook Page Insights tool, then you definitely will discover a more in-depth ‘Talking about this” report for your Facebook Insights. The picture below shows the 1st set of statistics that might be displayed while you log into the Insights tool.

Scrolling further down reveals a listing of all of your recent pages posts with detailed post level “Talking about this” metrics.

Clicking the “Talking about this” tab at the top left corner of your Insights page would reveal much more in-depth demographic data to your fans which have engaged or “talked about” your page until now week. You’re also ready to navigate on a 7-day basis, during the last 90 days.

Below it is a “Talking About Your Page” graph with five data filter options for a particular story type: “All Stories,” “Page likes,” “Stories out of your Posts,” “Mentions and Photo Tags,” “Posts by others,” and “Check-ins.”

The data above gives an insight into what’s generating your PTAT metric. For instance, a Facebook page for a cafe might find that “Check-ins” generate 50 percent of its PTAT and can look to extend this figure by encouraging visitors to “Check-in” to the Facebook page by offering a reduction on the restaurant. an additional Facebook page might find that its “Stories out of your Posts” engagement form the vast majority of its PTAT figure.

6. The hot Facebook Page Insights has broken down PTAT. On June 19, Facebook announced that its Page Insights Tool were overhauled with an update that has fundamentally changed PTAT. Inside the new Page Insights it truly is currently optional, PTAT is not any longer a single figure. It isn’t available as a viewable option and was broken down into the next key components within Facebook Insights.

• Page Likes.
• People Engaged — the variety of unique folks who have clicked on, Liked, commented on, or shared your posts.
• Page tags and mentions.
• Page check-ins.
• Other interactions on a page.

Facebook says that the aggregated PTAT metric will still be available within the old Insights interface. What’s unclear is that if Facebook will still retawithin the publicly available PTAT metric next to page Likes. I’ve found the reports in the new Insights to be thorough.

7. Sponsored stories and advertising might help boost your PTAT metrics. Increasing the reach of your Facebook page through advertising or sponsored stories can especially help with creating new stories about your page. a method of compelling content is the cornerstone of success with Facebook marketing.

Conclusion

Facebook could, perhaps, eliminate the hot “People Talking About This” metric after the total launch of the recent Page Insights and Graph Search. Regardless, what’s critical for effective Facebook marketing is healthier understanding the type of folks that interact together with your page and the kind of content that drives engagement.

PTAT in Page Insights has helped us better understand this so far. The hot Page Insights also thoroughly and more intuitively unravels page, post, and audience engagement metrics.