Every audience in our system starts as a public community: a Facebook Group or a fanpage. Before any profile data, the community's own page already shows whether it is alive, what it is about and how it treats outsiders. Our research team checks these signals for every audience review. You can check them too.

The nine public signals

  1. Members or followers. The ceiling on how big the audience can be.
  2. Posts last month. The best single measure of activity.
  3. Posts today. A quick check that activity is current.
  4. New members last week. Whether the community is still growing.
  5. Creation date. Older is not better or worse, but it puts the numbers in context.
  6. Name and description. What the community says it is about, and whether that has changed.
  7. Group rules. Especially rules about advertising.
  8. Latest post engagement (for pages): reactions, comments and shares.
  9. Last post date (for pages): whether anyone is still running it.

What the signals looked like in our reviews

Public signals captured for seven reviewed communities, Oct 2026
CommunityTypeSizeActivity signal
Vietnamese in USAGroup181,120 membersAbout 10,000 posts last month; 0 new members last week
IELTS Forecast GroupGroup178,101 members53 posts last month; 0 new members last week
$100M Mastery ClubGroup43,764 members45 posts last month; 0 new members last week
HannahOlalaFanpageAbout 1.6M followersDaily posts; latest drew 941 reactions in two hours
Columbia UniversityFanpageAbout 520K followersDaily posts; latest drew 347 reactions and 40 shares
KeapFanpageAbout 208K followersLatest visible post August 2025
IPL ScholarshipFanpageAbout 29K followersOccasional posts; latest drew 7 reactions
A person browsing a social media page on a laptop
Most of these signals sit on the community's About page, visible without joining. Photo: Unsplash.

Signals that change the plan

  • A name change. The IELTS Forecast Group was once a Vietnamese-in-Australia community. The members joined for one reason and stayed for another, so read both.
  • A no-advertising rule. The Vietnamese in USA group forbids ads. Reach its members through paid targeting outside the group, never by posting inside it.
  • Silence. A page with no public post for over a year, like Keap's, still has an interested audience, but that interest is ageing.
  • Zero growth. Three of our reviewed groups added no members in the week we checked. The list is fixed; plan to use it rather than to grow with it.

Activity is one half of freshness. Read Why Social Data Has a Shelf Life, or explore audiences with these signals already checked.