Facebook Insights 'Coming Soon,' Marketers Are Ready

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Facebook marketers wondering what data will be included in the new Insights analytics dashboard probably won't have to wait much longer. A source told ClickZ News that the updated version of the product "will be coming soon."

Marketing data has been one of many topics raised following Facebook's f8 conference last week. Industry players anticipate being able to see more than just "likes" on the backend, as they believe more granular interest-level data will soon be available when it comes to what people "watch," "listen," "read," "hike," etc. Those verbs were introduced as new data points on the social entwork.

Jordan Bitterman, a VP and social marketing director for ad agency Digitas, works on Facebook marketing efforts for a variety of top brands across numerous verticals. Any improvement in the social site's Insights product will be welcomed by Internet marketers, Bitterman said.

"To date, Facebook analytics have typically not been anywhere near as strong as the analytics we've been able to use on the rest of the web," he said. "With these changes they are making, the level of granularity they are expecting users, developers, and brands to participate in…it's going to be so much deeper. There's going to be a lot more segmentation that we will be able to do versus before. "

Leigh Fatzinger, CEO of social media agency Nology Media, had a different take. Like Bitterman, he predicted the new analytics would be improved. However, Fatzinger does not believe they will be enough to satisfy major brands.

"It will be good enough for small brands, but not big brands that are used to multiple views of data," he said. "We have to understand the difference between reporting and analytics. What Facebook introduced last year at f8 was called analytics but it was really just reporting."

Fatzinger doesn't anticipate the upgraded Insights to include demographics and time zone data. "I still think big brands are going to be frustrated by Facebook's analytics," he said.