Analytics- They're Not Just For Geeks Anymore!

Analytics — those mystical numbers that are supposed to tell you if your social media strategies are working. But unless you are a social media pro (or were a savant in junior high geometry class), all of the charts and graphs and percentages you get from your various sites… well, let’s just say they can be overwhelming. Dashboards are a great way to see lots of data at once, and honestly, they’ve always been the best and simplest way to see what’s working and what’s not…

Until lately. It seems like the social media fairies have been spreading the word, and sites have begun making their analytics more accessible to everyone – from the social media guru to the small business owner just getting their Facebook feet wet. Here’s a run-down of some of the latest and greatest reporting tools available through your favorite sites:

Facebook
Facebook analytics have come a long way. Since they moved all pages to the Timeline format, you may have noticed the Admin Panel at the top of your page (don’t worry — only you can see this, not visitors to your page). As well as showing you messages, new Likes, and other notifications, Facebook added a section for Insights. This shows you in easy-to-understand graphs just how successful your posts have been.

The Overview section is the most basic. If you’ve been putting in extra time and effort on Facebook, you should be pleased if your graph slopes upward. If your graph slopes down, don’t stress! Scroll down to the Page Posts section and figure out what’s been working and what you may need to adjust.

Twitter

Two years ago, the only way you could get analytics from your Twitter account was by using a third-party dashboard, like HootSuite or TweetDeck. But in late 2011, they decided they needed to step up their game.

Twitter’s web analytics tools are quite basic, and can tell you 3 things for sure: what’s being Tweeted from your website, how much traffic is being routed back to your website from Twitter, and just how effective that Tweet button is… you know, the one you asked your web developer to add to the top of all your posts. The graphs are easily color-coded, and you can see your progress in 7 day or 30 day chunks.

In order to see the handy dandy graphs, you’ll need to register your account as business instead of personal, but it’s pretty easy. Head to business.twitter.com to get started.

As a bonus, Twitter is expected to roll out more robust reporting for advertisers and promoted posts later this week, but since we don’t have a crystal ball, that’ll be another blog post for another day.

NEW! Pinterest
Since they’re so great at tapping into everyone’s visual sensibilities, it’s no surprise that Pinterest has jumped on the metrics bandwagon as well. They’ve always given companies the ability to see what people are Pinning from your site — pinterest.com/source/enteryourwebsitehere.com will show you what content has found its way onto other users’ Pin Boards.

But if that’s not enough and the Facebook and Twitter metrics have your inner math nerd wanting more, they’ve released Pinterest Web Analytics. If your Pinterest business account has a verified web address, you can see pins, repins, impressions, and (the best idea ever) an overview of what pinners like. That will hopefully make it easier to tweak future content on your site to make it more pin-friendly!

If you haven’t switched your Pinterest account from personal to business, we’ve got you covered.

It’s ok if you’re not great with charts, graphs, and numbers. The new set of tools from your favorite social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, and now Pinterest can hopefully help you understand how effective your campaigns have been. And if you’re still confused, you can always ask your trusted social media manager for help. After all, that’s what we’re here for!

Signing out,

Erika Stanley