All About Social Media Analytics
Navigating to analytics.[insert social platform here].com for each of your social media accounts can be a hassle, especially if you’re trying to compare results across different platforms. Just thinking about the overwhelming mess of open tabs and windows sends a shiver down my spine. And on top of that, these analytics services don’t give you any real control over how you collect and view your data. Yes, streamlining your social media analytics is time consuming, but taking the time to do it now can save you a lot of time (and stress) in the future. So for this week’s worthy reads, we’ve rounded up some useful articles to help you get it over with.
Analytics? I thought they were hieroglyphics
It’s confusing, I know. The best way to approach this is to first determine your objectives and create SMART goals. Then, figure out which metrics will best help you measure them. Here’s a great guide to help you create your social media dashboards with explanations of different reports available in Google Analytics.
How to Use Google Analytics for Social Media: A Beginner’s Guide
http://sproutsocial.com/insights | Shane Barker | May 25, 2018
Don’t join the dark side, track it
Dark social traffic consists of users who mysteriously land on a page of your website with no referral data whatsoever. It doesn’t sound so mysterious, but what are the odds that these users actually did type the page URL directly into their browser? If it’s a short, easy-to-remember URL, the chances may be high. If it’s a long and complicated URL with tons of hyphens and special characters, however, the chances are slim. So where did they come from? The most likely culprit is social media, and, whether you are aware of it or not, you have been one of these mysterious users.
Think about the last time a friend sent you a link via email, direct message or any other form of private communication that only you and your friend have access to. When you clicked the link, that’s considered dark traffic. This also applies to bookmarked links as well. While dark traffic is still technically untraceable, experts have figured out a way to separate them from the rest of your traffic. The secret is to create a segment around all of your direct traffic, but exclude the pages that users are likely to have memorized and typed in (the actual direct traffic).
How to Track Dark Social Traffic in Google Analytics
socialmediaexaminer.com | Rachel Moore | July 26, 2017
Rock your ROI with UTM codes
You can use a UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) code to measure your social media marketing campaigns. Let’s say your ultimate goal is to increase sales by 5%. Your team works backwards from this goal to design the path that will most likely increase sales. This path looks a little like this: Push a product page on social media > send more traffic to the product page > people buy the product > Goal: increase sales. If you have different campaigns across different platforms, you can use UTM codes to determine which social media is sending more people to that product page.
Getting Started: How to track social media ROI with Google Analytics and UTM tracking codes
rocksdigital.com | Roxanne Roark | September 5, 2017
Tweeters gonna tweet, Google Tag Manager gonna tag
Now, here’s a more advanced tutorial for those of you who need to track complex social media events and actions. This article shows you how improve your social media analytics by creating “listeners” that track Facebook likes, LinkedIn shares (and more).
Google Analytics Social Tracking: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest Buttons
http://analyticsmania.com | Julius Fed | January 17, 2018