In our series we’ve talked extensively about the importance of social media. We’ve talked about why you should have social media as part of your website. But what about the benefits of integrating social media, immediate and future? It’s a reality that your website will continue to grow with your business. It would make sense then your social media should too. Let’s talk for awhile about how to ensure your website’s long-term health through social media integration.
One major benefit for your website is the ability to track your social networks’ activity. You can then understand the impact your networks are having on your website.
Consider doing this with Google Analytics. They offer 8 different Social Analytics reports:
Overview Report
This first report gives you a chart which allows you to see quickly the value of your social channels by means of a graph comparison of your set goals and those from social referrals.
Network Referrals
This shows what referrals you are getting online. The level of engagement on each of your social networks is measured and tracked here. Also, it will show you which of your social networks referred the highest quality of traffic.
Data Hub Activity
The data hub report shows from your social channels who is talking about your website. It tracks what recent URL’s have been shared, how they shared and what they commented on them.
Landing Pages
A report generated for each URL of landing pages. Within each URL it measures and shows you the social networks for that specific URL.
Trackbacks
This report will track which sites are linking to your website content and the link context. Very helpful indeed! You can use this information to know what content was popular on your site and network with those who are linking regularly to your site.
Conversions
Shows the number of conversions and the monetary value for each as a result of referrals for each network.
Plugins
On your website, since you’ve included social share buttons now you can track when and how often those are being clicked on and lead to which content. You then will know which articles are shared more often and which social channels where they are shared.
Users flow
This makes your life so much easier! It will track the initial path a user took from your social network channels to and through your website. This is especially helpful if you run specific campaigns or for product selling on your website. You can track where people did or didn’t go once they followed your social to your site.
As you can see there’s a great benefit in using social media tracking to see your website’s current growth and future potential! By social media integration you’ve opened a large opportunity to yourself for tracking and collecting data for your website and business. Next article we will talk about more benefits and ways to get the most from social media integration for you and your website.
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Article by Zipporah Schumaker