Analytics Tools to Measure Social Media are Popping Up Like Mushrooms After a Rainstorm

JARspeaks

Analytics Tools to Measure Social Media are Popping Up Like Mushrooms After a Rainstorm

As more and more organizations are demanding measurable results from their social media efforts (and rightly so!), tools to measure these results seem to be springing up left and right. Last week, PostRank released a new analytics tool which aims to provide a better understanding of your audience by tracking the most effective social media channels for your content. To collect and rank your data, they rely on something called the Engagement Score, which tracks activities such as content creation, comments on blog posts, sharing on twitter, etc.

The secondary analytics data they provide is pulled directly from Google Analytics. This tracks page views, visitors, time spent on the site, bounce rate and Twitter followers. These metrics are then mapped against each other to present a comprehensive picture of your social media efforts

The primary benefits for using PostRank’s analytics tool are 1) you have the data in one place and 2) you are able to easily see metrics around individual posts. This kind of information is already available through various other methods, but PostRank provides a more convenient way to track efforts across many services. It also eliminates the need to manually pull data from these different sources. There is a one-month free trial; after that it is $9/ month for each blog or site.

In my opinion, this product is interesting but not mind blowing. It’s most appropriate to a more mature blogger, an organization that has content posted across many different social media channels, or for companies where brand buzz and monitoring is a top priority. The aggregation PostRank provides would make it easy and convenient for them to gain insight into viral spread & popularity.

Overall, I like the direction PostRank is taking in bringing social media engagement closer to the metrics that ultimately matter. What I’d really love is to see them add the ability to track which posts lead to the most conversions and generate the best ROI.

Param Ghangas | September 30, 2009 | Comments (2) | Categories: Social Media, Website Analytics

Great post - it really got me thinking. You’ve provided some great information and highlighted the importance of tracking these efforts. If, as you’ve suggested they can add the ability to track conversions in a future iteration of the tool, the $9/mo might be worthwhile.

Melissa | September 30, 2009
Hi Param - Strange, I never saw this post til today. How negligent!

Thanks for the overview; have you seen any of the new features we’ve rolled out since launch?

Also, I’m curious as to what you’re defining for your needs in terms of “the ability to track which posts lead to the most conversions and generate the best ROI”.

Do you mean specifically posts leading to sales leads, or something more relationship-based? Same with ROI, too — do you have a specific definition?

I’m curious because, based on a lot of conversations we’ve had, a lot of bloggers (and, by extension, companies, agencies, etc.) define those very differently, so building such features could be tricky.

Melanie Baker | November 3, 2009