{"id":12087,"date":"2012-03-21T07:36:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T07:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=12087"},"modified":"2013-04-03T22:11:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T21:11:11","slug":"google-social-analytics-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Analytics Social Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review<\/h2>\n

Value\/Importance<\/strong>: [rating=4]<\/p>\n

Recommended link<\/strong>: Google Analytics Blog summary<\/a><\/p>\n

Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics features<\/h3>\n


\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Avinash Kaushik, now Google\u2019s Digital Marketing Evangelist announced this new Google Analytics feature at his keynote at SES New York in March 2012, showing this is a major update that Google want to promote.<\/p>\n

August 2012 update<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time it was part of a beta referred to as \"Social Analytics\", but it is is now available to all Google Analytics users and as is shown in grab of the menu on the right it's<\/p>\n

The majority of the reviews of Social Analytics so far have simply included the screengrabs available from the Google Analytics blog summary, so I thought I would go into a bit more depth and give my view on what\u2019s helpful and what\u2019s not so helpful for marketers in the new update.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been part of the Social Analytics beta, so now it\u2019s officially announced I can let you know what I\u2019ve found and what I think you need to know\u2026 Others who have been on the beta, do let me know what I\u2019ve missed or you disagree with.<\/p>\n

1. Social Analytics is available as a main menu option on the left of Google Analytics<\/h3>\n

You can see where to find it from the first image in this review, it\u2019s under the standard reporting tab.<\/p>\n

2. It won\u2019t be available for a \u201cfew weeks\u201d<\/h3>\n

As with most Google Analytics releases, it\u2019s announced and then rolled out. We\u2019ll update this post when it becomes more widely available.<\/p>\n

3. No new configuration is needed - the new reports are available \u201cout-of-the-box\u201d<\/h3>\n

This update offers great convenience, previously you had to setup custom segments and custom reports which I\u2019ve found in training that many don\u2019t have time to do.<\/p>\n

That said, much of the reporting in Social Analytics was already available in Google Analytics<\/p>\n

If you have Google Analytics configured with advanced segments for social media and you are already grouping social media for example, you may be a bit overwhelmed by what this update offers, since what the update adds is really convenience to group the social metrics together. The contribution of social media to conversion could already be assessed through the assists in multichannel funnels as this campaign tracking tutorial<\/a> from Pritesh Patel shows:<\/p>\n

\"Social<\/p>\n

That said, this update will be really useful for this added convenience and additional detail on social sharing it gives\u2026.<\/p>\n

4. Social Analytics automatically groups the main social referrals<\/h3>\n

Use the Social Analytics \u201cSources\u201d option to find the relative importance of visits from the different social networks:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is great since previously you had to manually setup segments. So you can see the relative importance of different social networks in driving traffic.<\/p>\n

5. Niche social networks are included too<\/h3>\n

As well as the \u201cbig 5\u201d social networks you can see other \u201cniche networks\u201d such as Slideshare and Scribd which drive some traffic. Stumbleupon is included, but Pinterest doesn\u2019t seem to be.<\/p>\n

6. Care! Only direct referrals from social networks will be shown<\/h3>\n

The reports only show visits direct from the social network, but not via readers such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. As this post from Tim Leighton Boyce on tracking social media visits<\/a> shows, this could be a major underestimate - Hootsuite tracking tells me these account for c 40% of all social referrals, so even with the new tool there will be an underestimate the impact of social.<\/p>\n

7. You can see the most popular shared content<\/h3>\n

The Social Analytics, Page options shows you the most shared content:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can see our home page is most popular which we\u2019d aimed for, trying to make it shareable by adding a useful tool there.<\/p>\n

8. Goals and value included<\/h3>\n

With the debate on establishing the ROI of social media, the headline feature is the \u201csocial value report:\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Social<\/p>\n

This feature isn\u2019t enabled in our beta version yet. The version to establish value is based on Goal tracking - it doesn\u2019t work with automatically with our Ecommerce tracked conversion for basic and paid members.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in point 3, though, this feature is included through existing Multichannel funnels and Assists report.<\/p>\n

9. Social plugins show sharing actions on pages - but may not work correctly?<\/h3>\n

The Social plugins value shows sharing activity:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, this only seems to work for Google+, not working for Facebook or Twitter Like or Send although we are using the native sharing buttons.<\/p>\n

10. Activity stream shows conversations and events<\/h3>\n

This feature is hidden when you click through on an individual page. I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s of practical value - I\u2019ll continue to use Hootsuite. Interesting to see real people included within Google Analytics though!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Event tab is interesting to SEOs in particular since it shows the amount of data Google can collect about individual pages - we\u2019d suspected for a long time that Google recorded Bookmarks and this shows this is the case!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well that\u2019s about it - I\u2019ve covered all the main options currently available, I hope that\u2019s useful - we\u2019ll update when it becomes available to all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google Social Analytics – an in-depth review Value\/Importance: [rating=4] Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics features Avinash Kaushik, now Google\u2019s Digital Marketing Evangelist announced this new Google Analytics feature at his keynote at …..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,373],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoogle Analytics Social Reports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google Analytics Social Reports Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review Value\/Importance: Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google Analytics Social Reports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google Analytics Social Reports Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review Value\/Importance: Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smartinsights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-21T07:36:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-03T21:11:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"179\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"586\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Chaffey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@smartinsights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@smartinsights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Chaffey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/\",\"name\":\"Google Analytics Social Reports\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-21T07:36:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-03T21:11:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74a42fdad62aae408107024fc3c01cb7\"},\"description\":\"Google Analytics Social Reports Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review Value\/Importance: Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png\",\"width\":179,\"height\":586},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Google Analytics Social Reports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/\",\"name\":\"Smart Insights\",\"description\":\"Digital Marketing > The Marketing Strategy Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74a42fdad62aae408107024fc3c01cb7\",\"name\":\"Dave Chaffey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b9cc9e2eccf7ac0b434f10615d24ae24?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b9cc9e2eccf7ac0b434f10615d24ae24?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Chaffey\"},\"description\":\"Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing \u2018gurus\u2019 worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/author\/davechaffey\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Google Analytics Social Reports","description":"Google Analytics Social Reports Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review Value\/Importance: Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Google Analytics Social Reports","og_description":"Google Analytics Social Reports Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review Value\/Importance: Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/","og_site_name":"Smart Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smartinsights","article_published_time":"2012-03-21T07:36:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-04-03T21:11:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":179,"height":586,"url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Dave Chaffey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@smartinsights","twitter_site":"@smartinsights","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Chaffey","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/","name":"Google Analytics Social Reports","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png","datePublished":"2012-03-21T07:36:29+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-03T21:11:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74a42fdad62aae408107024fc3c01cb7"},"description":"Google Analytics Social Reports Google Social Analytics - an in-depth review Value\/Importance: Recommended link: Google Analytics Blog summary Our review of Google\u2019s new Social Analytics.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Google-Chrome2.png","width":179,"height":586},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/google-analytics\/google-analytics-setup\/google-social-analytics-review\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Google Analytics Social Reports"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/","name":"Smart Insights","description":"Digital Marketing > The Marketing Strategy Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74a42fdad62aae408107024fc3c01cb7","name":"Dave Chaffey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b9cc9e2eccf7ac0b434f10615d24ae24?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b9cc9e2eccf7ac0b434f10615d24ae24?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Dave Chaffey"},"description":"Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing \u2018gurus\u2019 worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/author\/davechaffey\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23489,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12087\/revisions\/23489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}