How to Download Your Facebook Page Status Updates Archive

I recently went on a journey to figure out how to download my facebook page’s status update archive.  Even though I do have a blog, I am more of a Facebooker than a blogger.  When I have something to say, I want to say it immediately without pomp and circumstance.  I want to get reactions immediately, too.  I want to communicate.  For me, Facebook is where it’s at.

When I started writing my own book, which is part memoir/part fiction, I wanted to go back and grab some of those life experiences that I had chronicled only on my Facebook page.  I tried the search function for what I knew were some of my much loved posts, but, alas, no results were found.  Regardless of the keyword, it knew nothing.  (Their search function is hit or miss.)

I was, however, able to use Facebook’s built in feature to retrieve my status updates from my personal profile, but I was unable to retrieve my status updates from my Facebook pages. I did try a few different times from within FB, and I was never given my file for my business page.  Maybe it was just an all-too-familiar FB glitch. (To retrieve your archive from your personal Facebook profile, go to Settings and click on “Download a copy of your Facebook data”.)

About Birdsong Analytics

I tried multiple searches on Google and tried several different sites that promised to deliver me my Facebook page status update archive, but nothing doin’.  Failed attempt after failed attempt.  Thankfully, Tiffany Wong’s (of Real Mom Talk) Google was able to help me out, and she quickly found Birdsong Analytics for me to peruse.

I clicked over and immediately liked their clean and easy-to-use website.  My favorite feature was the chat system which was set to engage me after a few minutes of being on the site.  I took the chat box  up on his offer.  I was now chatting with Jamie.

As it turns out, Jamie is the actual owner of this company.  He and his wife run it together.  As a business owner myself, I was very impressed that he had not outsourced this part of his business.  Customer service is key to any successful business but is unfortunately one of the lowest paid jobs within a company.  It’s best to handle this yourself if at all possible.

Jamie sent me a sample report of my Facebook page that showed me all kinds of numbers six ways to Sunday, and I kept him on chat for a good 20 minutes asking him all sorts of questions, to which he responded with wit and charm.  A bonus feature of any site.

You get lots of great information about your page (or you can download ANY page’s info, not just your own), but the thing that started it all was wanting my archive of status updates from my own Facebook page.

For easiest status updates extraction, you can download your status update file in the .CSV file format.  You will need to open this file in Excel to retrieve your status updates.  The status updates will all be in one column, so you can delete the columns that you don’t want or just work with the data that is there.

The columns are post id, date, status update text, number of likes, number of comments, and number of shares.  These are great columns for me, because I know that the content that I want to share in my novel is going to be what my audience was most responsive to.  The content has already been vetted, so I know it’s good and strikes a chord in my audience.

 

 

One of the free features that I love about Birdsong Analytics is that I can quickly and easily access some statistical data on ANY page, not just my own page.  This will come in most handy when I am working with clients on preparing their media kits.  I don’t even offer advertising on my own site, but after seeing my 13% engagement rate, I’m thinking about it.

I can also order the detailed reports on ANY page, not just my own.  

What BirdSong can offer is an insight on how your competitors are using Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. You can use it to identify their performance, best time to tweet, most popular tweets and the ability to export their followers. On Facebook and Instagtram you can identify the best performing content and posting times. “–Jamie Riddell

When I told him that I was actually doing research for an article, he sent me my full data.  But, being a small business owner myself, I’m not looking for handouts.  Investing in each other is critical, and we shouldn’t always be looking for a “gimme gimme gimme”.  I went through the process as a paying customer to retrieve my information.  They are in the UK, so the UK price is 19.99 pounds, which translates to $30 US dollars.  (Write-offs are an important part of business, too.)

If you know that you will be needing more than one report (say you want to do one each month with updated statistics), then you can buy a pack of 6 for $120, saving you $60.

To see a sample of the reports, click here.

In my opinion, my $30 was well spent.  I got 3 years’ worth of my life story in a simple to use format.  Even if I wasn’t writing a book, this is information that I can compile for journaling or whatever I want to use it for.  It’s mine.  Facebook shouldn’t own it and be able to keep it from us.  Hopefully they will make this information easier to retrieve at some point in the near future.

Although the report was supposed to have been delivered to my email in approximately 15 minutes, I know from talking with Jamie the other day that sometimes getting information from Facebook doesn’t go as quickly as planned.  And we all know from the hours that we’ve invested into Facebook that they don’t always play nice.  I mean, I can’t even get their own search engine to work correctly all of the time.  So even though the report took longer to retrieve than 15 minutes, that was not Birdsong Analytics’ fault.

I have worked in the customer service industry for over 20 years, and I am very impressed by Birdsong Analytics services and their customer support.  And I’m impressed with some of my writing, too.  It was great to easily go back through my status updates and see what my former self had been up to over the last three years.