Whether or not you like it, part of marketing means tracking – as in, tracking how your marketing strategy is working. One of any marketer’s go-to tools is Google Analytics, which was recently updated. Of course, it delivers the best insight when coupled with Google+, but it is also highly useful no matter what social media platforms you use.
The following guide is an overview of 5 new Google Analytics social reporting features that can help you evaluate and measure your social media marketing efforts.
Social Visitors Flow
What it is: Visual presentation of how visitors from social media sites explore your website
Why it’s great: Easier way to get a quick snapshot of which social media sites are sending you traffic. You’ll also be able to see if the visitors are qualified, since you can see their first five interactions on your site and therefore understand what information they are looking for/at.
Social Data Hub
What it is: Report that provides insight into what content is driving the most social engagement
Why it’s great: You can see how your content is being consumed on a bunch of partner sites like Blogger, Disqus, Meetup, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, and more
Activity Stream
What it is: Real-time reporting and monitoring tool that lets you view individual post/page analytics
Why it’s great: Works with smaller social media platforms like Digg, Read It Later, Echo, Delicious, and others
Social Value
What it is: Overview of how social traffic helps drive website conversions or events
Why it’s great: You can define what you want to track, like landing page visits, visit duration, pages visited, and events (downloading an ebook or watching a video)
Multi-Channel Funnel Report
What it is: A report that helps you better measure online behavior
Why it’s great: You can see which social media platforms are driving conversions
Image courtesy of mywifequitherjob.com
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