Did you know Excel can import your Facebook data? If you have a Facebook page or personal profile you can easily import your data with Power Query to gain valuable and interesting insight about your friends and followers.

Just a reminder, that in Excel 2010 and 2013 Power Query is an add-in and you can find out how to install it here. In Excel 2016 it comes pre-installed under the Data tab in the ribbon and is called Get & Transform.

Create a Facebook Power Query.

1. Go to the Power Query tab in the ribbon.
2. Under the Get External Data section select From Online Services.
3. Select From Facebook.
4. Specify the object you’re connecting to.
   1. To connect to your Facebook page, type the name of it here. For example my Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/howtoexcelblog/ (shameless plug, you should follow it for great tutorials like this one) so I have entered howtoexcelblog.
   2. To connect to your personal profile, just type Me.
   3. To connect a group enter the ID number found in the URL, it should look something like this https://www.facebook.com/groups/99999999999/ just copy in the number part.
5. Select your connection type, you can choose from things such as comments, friends, likes, posts etc…
6. Press the OK button.

If you’re connecting for the first time, you’ll need to sign into your Facebook account.

1. Press the Sign in button.
2. Enter your log in credentials (email and password) for the Facebook account you want data from.
3. Press the Log In button.
4. Press the Connect button.

The preview query.

1. The connection will be displayed at the top.
2. A preview of the data is shown.
3. Press the Edit button to edit the data as desired before importing.

In the Editor you will be able to expand columns with a double arrow icon in the right hand corner of the column heading to reveal more data.

1. Click on any double arrow icon in the column heading to expand the data.
2. Press the OK button to expand the column.
3. When you’re finished editing the query, go to the Home tab in the ribbon.
4. Press the Close & Load button.

Now you can analyse your Facebook data until you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, so many likes 🙂