What is it?

Social media tracking, also called social media measuring, is very much like website tracking, but with a few nuances. Both processes are analytics processes, and they serve the same purpose (understand your incoming traffic) but in different areas of the web. Website tracking, if properly setup can be a meta-analytic of social media tracking.

What do you use social media tracking for?

Social media tracking can be used to gauge the relative worth of various social channels, and what each channel is good for.

Social media tracking does incorporate some additional metrics into the mix of online enlightenment:

• Use to gauge sentiment or disposition of incoming traffic. Certain channels (twitter vs. Facebook vs. LinkedIn) have different purposes, and therefore incoming traffic may have very different desires. Sometimes the medium itself is enough regardless of what you post; Facebook is more for friends, LinkedIn more for business, Twitter more for data aggregation and sifting.
• Use to gauge penetration of certain marketing messages in various social networks. Certain messages will carry farther into certain social spheres, thereby giving you wisdom on how to use each channel and for what purpose.
• Use to gauge branding potential or success of ideas or products. Is your brand working and do people identify and like it?
• Use to gauge the relative worth of specific social sites against each other.

Why it’s so important (The Result)

Any traffic to your website should be analyzed for potential advantage in the marketplace. Social sites are no exception. In a way, tracking social media sites fall into the PR world, which but specifically for online channels.

What strategies social media tracking is used for.

• Helps you drive traffic: By better improving your knowledge of how social sites are driving traffic, you drive more traffic.
• Helps make your website sticky: social tracking can show you what interests people. For instance, you can gauge the ‘interest’ level and compare across channels, across articles, etc.