Data Explained | What is Facebook social reach?

In the ‘v_facebook_post’ data set, the ‘post_impressions_unique’ field is used for reach. 

• Reach is a unique metric, and when comparing social reach from the user interface (UI) to reach data in ChannelMix, you’re likely to see discrepancies. 
• Because when Alight pulls the data into ChannelMix it’s a “live” pull at that time, when you compare to the UI numbers could be slightly different because you aren’t looking at the same data at the same time. 
• Alight pulls lifetime data, typically for the first 7 days of the post’s life. 
• If your reporting requires a longer look-back window, please reach out to Support to discuss options. 
• Creating a “Top 10 Posts by Reach” data table can be misleading.
• For example, because we back fill data, your data set could include posts from 180+ days ago as well as recent posts. If you create a data table in Tableau showing the top 10 Posts by Reach, be sure you are comparing apples to apples. An older post will have a higher reach because it’s been posted for a longer amount of time. This doesn’t necessarily mean that post drove more reach than a recent post.  

If you have further questions about Facebook social reach data, please reach out to Support. If you do not have Support hours, requests will be sent to the Account Director to scope out.