Facebook to tell brands what people are talking about

A new “People Talking About This” metric, set to debut on Wednesday, counts up the number of Likes, comments, shares, RSVPs and tagged mentions of a brand that take place within the social network.

This word-of-mouth metric is intended to “help marketers and Page owners understand how to make their content more engaging and shareable, which increases the reach of their messages on Facebook,” the company said in a statement.

A new Page Insights API is also being tapped by analytics firms Wildfire and Context Optional to allow Facebook engagement data to feed into their own platforms. Rival Webtrends, meanwhile, has also used the API to develop the new Hoverstats tool as Chrome browser plugin that overlays the total reach of each Facebook Page post.