Facebook has announced there are some significant flaws in their page insight reporting system. Though Facebook has not revealed when the flaws first cropped up, it's most likely that they began with an update to Edgemark (Facebook’s content and analytics algorithm). In other words, you have probably been getting bad data from your page since September.

What happened exactly? Apparently, Edgemark was failing to record hits from mobile users. It was also counting hits that re-directed from Facebook ads twice. That means that small groups, with few mobile visitors and fewer advertising dollars, will see no change when the new safeguards go into effect today. Larger groups, however, can expect to see larger swells of traffic as their legions of mobile followers start being counted.

What does this mean for your business? It means that Facebook has used a little bit more personal credit. Like Google, Facebook may not be universally adored, but we work with Facebook because Facebook is the best and biggest provider in its category.  But these incidents, for lack of a better word, do reduce customer loyalty even if they don’t reduce business volume. We feel that it would be wise for Facebook to be more open about data problems such as this one in the future. That way, groups can plan accordingly, and a jump to Facebook’s inevitable rival platform will not seem so enticing.

And another thing: Mark Zuckerberg is on record as saying, “I want to dispel this myth that Facebook can't make money on mobile.” Well Mark, how can you make money on mobile if you can’t measure mobile traffic?