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Facebook to offer Insights in real time (rumor)

Facebook is looking to upgrade its Insights analytics tool so that Page performance data is offered in real time, according to a new rumor. Timing for such an upgrade is unknown.
Written by Emil Protalinski, Contributor

Facebook's Page analytics tool Insights is about to get a big update. Currently, Insights offers data that is approximately 48 hours old. That's when it's working properly; the data is sometimes up to 96 hours old, or even longer. In any case, Facebook is looking to begin showing Page performance data in real-time or near real-time, according to our sources cited by TechCrunch.

If you've been seeing delays in your Page performance data, this is reportedly the reason why. Facebook has been making changes to its system in anticipation of the upgrade, which has not been scheduled yet. The social networking giant is of course not commenting on the issue or the upcoming rumored upgrade.

If you're wondering whether your Page is the only one with old data, you should probably check out the website WhyIsFacebookInsightsNotWorking.com. At the time of writing, it reads "Facebook Insights are 3 days behind. This is normal. Nothing to see here."

Currently, only some data is being reported in near real-time: Likes, comments, and shares for a Page's posts to the news feed. The rest, including impressions, reach, negative feedback, People Talking About This, demographics of engagers, and so on, are all delayed.

By the time the data is available, Page administrators can only learn from their mistakes and try to do better next time. It's too late to take advantage of a boost in traffic, to delete a post that is doing more harm than good, or to tweak an advertising campaign as it's still happening.

With real-time Page performance data, all this would be possible, and Page owners could really start to take advantage of Facebook. Given the expected release of Timeline for Pages this month, an overhauled version of Insights will certainly be welcome.

I have contacted Facebook and will update you if I hear back.

Update at 11:00 AM PST: "We have nothing to announce at this time," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.

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