Social Media Tracking with Google Analytics

As the use of social media continues to skyrocket, many companies consult social media tracking to understand their online audience and how to better connect with them.

Google Analytics can track web page visitors from the social media sites and search engines that referred them. It also tracks other referrals such as email marketing, digital collateral, and pay-per-click advertising. Google’s social media tracking reports measure the impact users’ social media pages have on their web interaction and ultimately, their business goals. A free, basic service and a paid, premium service are both available.

Analytics generates detailed statistical data reporting everything from website traffic to conversions. In social media tracking, a conversion is the proportion of website visitors who respond to requests from content creators or marketers, instead of just a casual web page viewing, over the number of total website visitors. Conversions can mean different things to different marketers, from a sale persuaded by clicking a banner advertisement to a “like” or channel subscription.

Reports track and display all steps on the path that led to the conversion and show how visitors interacted with all channels that led to the conversion. Reports show the total number of conversions over a selected period of time, as well as the number of assists that helped direct the visitor before the final click was made. Other reports measure the different routes visitors take and the time that it takes from the initial page view to the final click. Social media tracking helps marketers understand consumer purchasing behavior, a most powerful insight.

Google Analytics goes even further with providing users with popularity reports on top key words searched that draw traffic to the web page and top paths that result in conversion. Knowing these top paths can help users purposefully place information in selected areas to maximize exposure and motivate action. Specifically, the Social Conversions report shows users how their social media pages directly affect their ROI.

Google’s Social Sharing feature allows users to track sharing and its origin, as well as unique visitors that result from posting new content. This allows users to see which content stirs the most social buzz.

Analytics has also gone mobile with its social media tracking. Users can measure traffic from web apps and mobile websites used on all mobile devices from smart phones to tablets. Google’s mobile app analytics also allows users to measure in-app engagement, as well as in-app conversions. Understanding mobile traffic can help users decide whether they should implement a responsive web design, referring to a site that adapts to the device on which it is being viewed, or create a separate mobile site. This is all important for social media marketing.

For companies and business owners who would like to begin using social media tracking tools, but don’t know where to start, Google Analytics is an effective tool that helps replace the guess work with data-driven results.