How to List Facebook Page Fans

How to List Facebook Page Fans
Facebook Graph Search Results for people who like eBiz ROI Inc

2 Ways to Determine Who Likes Your Facebook Page

Facebook likes are earned media not owned media
How to List Facebook Page Fans (likes)

How to List Facebook Page Fans

Today we’re going to answer a common question asked by many clients which is  “how to list Facebook page fans?” Here are some discussions on the Facebook Help Community on the topic:

This short answer is that at best, users can retrieve a partial listing of fans for a Facebook business page. At the time of this post, there is no documentation that we are aware of detailing how to list Facebook page fans.  If you know of any, please share in the comments.

We use a few different approaches to obtain a partial list of Facebook business page fans. The video below demonstrates two techniques to acquire this information. In includes a bonus of showing how to access aggregate audience information for a Facebook business page using the enhanced Facebook Insights.

Two Methods on How to list Facebook page fans

One technique requires that the Facebook user be logged into Facebook as the business page instead of using their personal profile.

The other technique will use a new feature in Facebook called Graph Search to return a list of users who have like a specific Facebook business page.

Note that both of these techniques will return a partial list of fans for Facebook business page which can help provide insights when trying to create and curate content to share on your Facebook business page. The goal should always be to maximize reach and engagement with a business page’s fan base.

Old School Technique – Logged into Facebook  as the Business Page

People Connected to eBiz ROI, Inc.
People Connected to eBiz ROI, Inc. as Accessed by Clicking the Friends Button

With the “old school” technique, users should ensure that they are logged into Facebook using Facebook as the business page. This can be a bit confusing but if the user ever loses context, they can simply look in the upper right-hand corner of the interface and determine whether they’re logged in as their personal profile or that of the business page. This context is denoted by the user icon displayed there.

Next, the user will navigate to the Facebook logo in the upper left-hand corner of the interface. Immediately to the right of the Facebook logo is a little friend icon that once clicked will bring up a partial list of fans for the business page.

Notice that using this technique, Facebook will only return 5 fans for the business page. To see additional fans for the business page, the user must click on the “see more” link at the bottom of the fan list.

10 additional fans are displayed each time one clicks the “see more” link. For any page with more than a few dozen fans, this process of clicking the see more link can become tedious very quickly.

Enter Facebook Graph Search

The second method of how to list Facebook page fans uses the newer Facebook Graph Search feature. This requires that the user be logged into Facebook as their personal profile. They must also be assigned the role of administrator for the specific Facebook business page.

The user/administrator will then go to the search box from the business page (just above the administration panel) and type the following words to proceed the business name in the search box “find people that like” <insert name of Facebook business page>, then click enter.

Facebook Graph Search used to return a list of fans people that like eBiz ROI Inc.

Facebook Graph Search used to return a list of fans people that like eBiz ROI Inc.

Using this Facebook Graph Search technique returns a list of Facebook users who have liked the relevant Facebook business page. One of the advantages of using the Graph Search technique is that additional information about each fan is provided.

For instance, for the eBiz ROI, Inc. Facebook business page, we can see the following information about fans:

  • Name
  • Occupation/Title/Where they work
  • Where they went to school
  • Where they’re located
  • How many other pages they like
  • How many mutual friends we have in common

Will a Graph Search Always Provide the Same Information?

This information varies based on individuals Facebook privacy settings. Regardless of privacy settings, we see that this Graph Search technique for listing a Facebook page fan base provides much more information than the earlier technique described.

Facebook Graph Search Results for people who like eBiz ROI Inc
Facebook Graph Search Results for people who like eBiz ROI Inc

Using Facebook Graph Search, users can then scroll down the list of fans for the business page with the search results behaving similarly to how the Facebook Newsfeed populates dynamically as a user scrolls down the page.

In other words, as the user scrolls down additional fans will be populated in the resulting list. The example in the demo video above, the Graph Search results contained the first 200 fans for the business page organized 12 per page.

Like the first technique, Facebook Graph Search only provides a subset of the fan base for a Facebook business page. It is unclear to me whether this is a limitation based on Facebook data sharing mechanisms or the privacy settings for individual fans.

Facebook Insights to get a Clearer View of Audience Demographics

Users that are more interested in getting aggregate audience information can use the updated Facebook Insights to get information such as the split of male versus female fans, the number of fans per age group by sex and even where fans are located.

eBiz ROI Inc.Facebook Business Page audience demographics as compared to Facebook
eBiz ROI Inc.Facebook Business Page audience demographics as compared to Facebook

This new Facebook Insights feature demonstrates that the most large age group for the eBiz ROI, Inc. Facebook business page is 14% which is comprised of 25-34-year-old males.

Facebook Fans form a Global Audience

In addition, the new Facebook insights provide information about where fans are located geographically and lists the top 10 by default.

eBiz ROI Inc. Business Page audience geographies - top 10
eBiz ROI Inc. Business Page Audience Geographies – top 10 Geographies Listed

We can see from the Facebook Insights screen capture above that the eBiz ROI, Inc. Facebook business page has fans from as far away as India, Australia and South Africa.

Summary

As Facebook evolves, its value as a digital marketing channel for businesses of all kinds will continue to grow.

This demonstration was designed to provide information for readers/viewers to use to get a clearer view of their Facebook page fans while learning more about their Facebook audience as a whole.

Those interested in getting more information should contact us to schedule an Internet marketing consultation. We can help you learn more about using Facebook to grow sale while maximizing marketing ROI.

Bonus – Nine Ways You Can Use Graph Search to Learn About Your Facebook Fans

Great video from John Haydon via Social Media Today

“One of the most critical aspects of an effective content strategy is to understand your audience. When you understand your audience – really get them – your content strategy becomes crystal clear!”

I am sure that you will agree that John’s nine examples using Graph Search to learn about a pages Facebook Fans, their likes, interests and the ideas on how that information would be useful to marketing efforts is truly thought-provoking. Thank you for reading.

About

Rick Noel is an experienced digital marketer enabling businesses and organizations to grow through the Internet, while maximizing marketing ROI (Return On Investment). Rick is the CEO and Co-Founder of eBiz ROI, Inc., a full-service digital marketing agency located in Ballston Lake, NY.

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2 Comments on “How to List Facebook Page Fans

  1. thanks Rick for your excelent presentation on how to find fans who have liked your business page. In addition to the details of the fan is there a record of when that fan liked your business page? I want to get a list of all the new likes from a particular date?
    Thanks

    • Hi Maurice. Thanks for the comment. Sorry for the delay in approving responding. I am not aware of any third party tool to isolate Fans (likes) for a business page to a specific time period. I did some searches on Google, but to no avail. I did come across a free benchmarking tool at barometer.agorapulse.com that you might find interesting to compare your Facebook business page against their benchmark. I will reply to this comment and let you/others know if I find a tool that addresses your specific need as there appears to be market demand based on the discussion on the Facebook help/support section.

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