Many of you will already have discovered this. On fan pages, below the number of fans, there is a new, additional section:

“394 are talking about this” is a measured value that shows how many people are discussing the Facebook page. In the US, this function has already been launched as “394 are talking about this”. But what is this figure based on?

It states how many people are talking to their friends about the page. This number therefore indicates the number of people who

• like the page
• like, comment on or share the contributions on the page
• are answering a question / poll
• are taking part in an event on the page
• have mentioned the page
• have marked the page in one of their photos
• recommend the location of the page or say they have been there

Regular posting with attractive content will mean that more people will talk to their friends about it. Website operators will thus be encouraged to prepare their content in such a way that they reach the people, since the number of “likes” will no longer be decisive.

The new Facebook statistics make it possible to determine a comprehensive range. Not only the fans of the page are taken into account, but also their friends:

The statistics about “X people are talking about this” give detailed information about how the figure was reached. The figure covers the data of the last 7 days. It is not possible to disable the statistics. Each site owner can now see whether his contributions lead to discussions and trigger comments, or whether they go no further than “I like!”.

As soon as these insights are also accessible to us in German-speaking countries, site operators will obtain deeper insights into how their contributions are viewed. In future, the total number of people that interact with the page, those that talk about it, and the degree of viral spread will be apparent in figures. Facebook has been collecting the relevant data since July 2011. Not all contributions will be visible, however, since Facebook has only analysed the last 500.

Please note: All activities are registered “value-free”. This means that it will not be possible for the site operator to know whether the people are talking about them favourably or unfavourably.

Source: Facebook Page Insights, Product Guide for Facebook Page owners