29 Must-Know Terms For Every Social Media Analyst. (and the people who work with them)

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Beverly King
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1 29 Must-Know Terms For Every Social Media Analyst (and the people who work with them)

Introduction Social networks have improved their internal analytics offerings to the point where they are unrecognizable even from a year or two ago.

2 Introduction Social networks have improved their internal analytics offerings to the point where they are unrecognizable even from a year or two ago. Can you imagine working with the old Facebook Insights now that they provide a wealth of data about the health and status of your page? Business demand drives much of this access to better social analytics. Paid advertising through social networks is becoming a core part of any marketing campaign, and brands need data to justify the spend. Access to better analytics arms marketers with the information needed to measure ROI and allocate budgets. Facebook, YouTube, and more recently, Twitter and LinkedIn have really beefed up their analytics offerings. Younger social networks such as Instagram and Pinterest are still navigating best practices for businesses to leverage their platforms and as a result, are still playing catch-up in this area. With your brand being active across so many social networks, it s important for you to remain up to speed on the myriad of industry terms used for each platform. These terms are often different words that can essentially mean the same thing but are important to know so that your boss or client understands what you re talking about in your reports! As a side note, this report focuses on social media analytics terms, so we haven t included many well-known marketing analytics terms like Click Through Rate, Cost Per Action, Return On Investment, etc. in this guide.

3 Contents Cross-channel terms Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Pinterest/Instagram Thank you Unmetric is an online platform that leverages human and algorithmic intelligence to provide enterprises with data and insights into how well their social media content and campaigns perform compared to industry competitors.

4 04 Cross-Channel Terminology Each social network employs its own terms to describe very similar metrics. These common terms are relevant for most or all of the social networks. 1. Benchmarks Used to help a brand validate its social media performance (particularly for vanity metrics) and to justify social media budgets. Brands should benchmark against direct competitors or a larger peer group rather than non-relevant brands or sectors. Brands should also benchmark against their own previous efforts. Benchmarks can be done against your own performance or use a third party analytics platform to benchmark against your wider sector. 2. Engagements From a metrics perspective, Engagements is the number of people that have interacted with a piece of content posted on a social media channel. Engagements are often thought of as the objective of social media, but like any form of mass communication, achieving business objectives is now becoming the primary goal. Social networks show the engagements in their analytics platforms but often the way engagement is calculated differs from network to network. Use a third party analytics platform to get a standardized engagement score on competitor pages. 3. Impressions Similar to mass media terminology, social media impressions is the number of people that have had a piece of brand content show up in their newsfeed across various social networks. An impression should not be referred to as a definite view or meaningful engagement, as people often overlook brand content. In the analytics platforms of the various social networks. 4. Interactions A subset of Engagements, an interaction is anything a user does with a piece of brand content on social media. Interactions can be a Video View, Like, Favorite, Comment, Retweet or Share. Facebook determines Engagement as a summation of the interactions (Likes, Comments, Shares) on a piece of content. Most social networks will show you the number of people that have interacted with your content in their analytics platforms some networks refer to interactions as engagements.

5 05 5. Targeting The method by which a brand reaches its target market on a social network. Some social networks have more advanced targeting than others, but standard targeting options include: location (down to the neighbourhood in some cases), age, and gender. Some social networks will let you target people by the company they work for, their job role, designation and interests. In the advertising platforms of the various social networks but also when you post an update on Facebook you can select the target audience for the post. 6. Vanity Metrics So defined because without context, they don t help a brand with its business objectives or measure ROI. However, vanity metrics are easy to grasp and provide good headlines. The best way to use vanity metrics is in conjunction with benchmarks or trend analysis. Examples of vanity metrics include: Fans Likes Comments Shares Followers Favorites Replies Retweets Followers Likes Comments Repins Subscribers Views Likes Comments Followers Likes Comments Followers Likes Comments Shares A maniacal focus on likes and shares, for example, would lead a brand to over-index on pictures of puppies. But how does that help you achieve your brand s objectives? People often talk about signal versus noise, and we believe that s the right way to think about it. Carrie Van Es Vice President at M Booth. Read the full interview here.

06 Facebook Facebook has more metrics than most other social networks in its analytics dashboard, but it doesn t give you everything you need to know to plan your social media strategy. 7.

6 06 Facebook Facebook has more metrics than most other social networks in its analytics dashboard, but it doesn t give you everything you need to know to plan your social media strategy. 7. Average Reply Time (ART) The average amount of time between when a user first posts a question on a brand s Facebook wall and when the brand actually replies for the first time. ART doesn t take into account the resolution of a problem but does help a brand understand and plan its customer service resource allocation. Facebook does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform which uses multiple data points to calculate this metric. 8. Response Rate Is calculated by examining the number of questions/comments being posted on a brand s Facebook wall and then seeing how many replies those questions and mentions received. This is useful for determining social media customer service resource allocation. Facebook does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform which uses multipe data points to calculate this metric.

7 07 9. Boosting Facebook encourages brands to think of it as a mass media platform. Just as with mass media advertising, brands must pay Facebook for their post to reach the masses and this process is called Boosting. When logged in as the page admin and posting an update, a button is available to Boost the post, it s also available on content that was previously posted. 10. Monthly Active Users / Daily Active Users Usually abbreviated to MAU & DAU respectively, these terms inform a brand how many users a have used a Facebook app. The DAU fluctuates daily, while the MAU is a 30-day moving average of the number of Daily Active Users. Combined with relevant benchmarks, a brand can understand how effective a Facebook app investment has been. Facebook does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform to get this metric. 11. Reach The number of people that have been exposed to a piece of brand content on their newsfeeds (this doesn t mean the audience necessarily noticed or interacted with the content in a meaningful way). As Facebook has restricted the organic reach to fans, brands now need to pay to achieve significant reach for their content -- although organic user sharing of content can drastically increase reach. Under the Facebook Insights tab and also below each brand post. Paid Media is a critical piece to success in Social Media and shouldn t be treated as a nice-tohave but rather a mandatory for a presence on specific channels. Jeff Melton SVP, Global Technology and Platforms at MSLGROUP Read the full interview here.

08 Twitter The social network on which you can take the pulse of your community and is also quickly becoming the platform of choice for brands to offer customer service. 12.

8 08 Twitter The social network on which you can take the pulse of your community and is also quickly becoming the platform of choice for brands to offer customer service. 12. Average Reply Time (ART) The average amount of time between when a user first tweets at a brand on Twitter and when the brand actually replies for the first time. ART doesn t take into account the resolution of a problem but does help a brand understand and plan its customer service resource allocation. Twitter does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform which takes separate data points to calculate this metric. 13. Response Rate Is calculated by examining the number on Twitter, and then seeing how many replies those questions and mentions received. Response rate is useful for determining social media customer service resource allocation. Twitter does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform which takes separate data points to calculate this metric.

09 14. Influencers Thanks to the democratization of social media, there are individuals that have gained recognition as an authority in a particular field or popularity with the general public.

9 Influencers Thanks to the democratization of social media, there are individuals that have gained recognition as an authority in a particular field or popularity with the general public. Previously, influencers may have been celebrities or sports stars, but now, anyone with a loyal following can be an influencer. Brands can amplify their message or react to a PR crisis by understanding and interacting with key influencers. Twitter does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform which takes separate data points to calculate this metric. 15. Sentiment This indicates whether the buzz about a brand is positive or negative and picks up recurring topics from the general public related to a brand s products and services. Sentiment is a metric that is best measured over time to identify trends rather than looking at a snapshot on a particular day. Twitter does not provide this data directly, you need to use a third party analytics platform which takes separate data points to calculate this metric. 16. Twitter Cards Like a promoted tweet but with more functionality, there are many varieties of Twitter Cards that brands can use. Audience information can be collected with the click of a button making them quite useful for lead generation. In the Twitter Advertising dashboard. If anything I believe that too many metrics are available today. I look forward to a point in time when it s less about metrics and more about meaning Zaheer Nooruddin VP of Digital & Social Media at Waggener Edstrom APAC. Read the full interview here.

10 YouTube Not just for home videos and cat videos, YouTube is quickly growing up and now provides many metrics that would be familiar to anyone from the TV advertising industry but with more depth,

10 10 YouTube Not just for home videos and cat videos, YouTube is quickly growing up and now provides many metrics that would be familiar to anyone from the TV advertising industry but with more depth, accuracy and insight. 17. Estimated Minutes Watched The cumulative number of minutes watched by everyone that has viewed a YouTube video. This is more of a vanity metric. In the YouTube Analytics dashboard. 18. Audience Retention Few viewers manage to get all the way through a video. This metric tells brands the average duration a visitor viewed their video, or the percentage of the video that the average person watches useful for identifying edits the video might need. A view is counted the moment a person begins to play a video. In the YouTube Analytics dashboard.

11 19. Average Video Length Brands use this metric to find out how long the average video is for a particular channel or the sector.

11 Average Video Length Brands use this metric to find out how long the average video is for a particular channel or the sector. This information can be combined with Audience Retention metrics to determine a brand s optimal video length. In third party analytics platforms that take multiple data points to create new metrics. 20. Pre-roll Campaigns These are ads that play before a video starts and are charged on a CPM (Cost Per Thousand how much it costs for 1,000 views) basis. By default, viewers can skip an ad after 5 seconds, but YouTube allows brands to pay more to disable the skip button. In the YouTube Advertising dashboard (you will need an AdWords account). 21. Annotations These are the messages overlaid on YouTube videos, and can be used to promote different videos or link out to other websites. They are very useful for increasing engagement or getting people to interact with a video. In the YouTube Analytics dashboard. You never know what you might learn [when you look at other sectors] - a new platform, a new way of looking at a platform, a new concept, or just the way social media marketing is heading! For instance, a lot of Coke s feel good videos can extend to many categories, not just soft drinks! Deepak Gopalakrishnan Planning Director at OgilvyOne Worldwide. Read the full interview here.

12 LinkedIn Dismissed by many in the early days, LinkedIn has been ramping up its advertising offerings and has emerged as a strong platform to reach decision makers especially with its new Showcase

12 12 LinkedIn Dismissed by many in the early days, LinkedIn has been ramping up its advertising offerings and has emerged as a strong platform to reach decision makers especially with its new Showcase pages. 22. Acquired Followers These are followers a brand has acquired through paid promotion such as a sponsored post. Brands can identify how paid efforts help them to build and engage with a LinkedIn community. In the LinkedIn Analytics dashboard. 23. Audience LinkedIn will indicate if content was sent to all followers, which is true for organic posts, or targeted to select people, which is the case for sponsored updates. In the LinkedIn Analytics dashboard.

13 Reach LinkedIn refers to content impressions as Reach. It is a total of the number of times a piece of brand content was served up in the newsfeeds of LinkedIn users. A sub-metric of this is Unique Reach, which is the exact number of newsfeeds the content was published on. This is different, as a user might refresh the newsfeed several times and increase the reach metric with each refresh. In the LinkedIn Analytics dashboard. 25. Engagement Along with the number of interactions (the number of people who have liked, commented or shared the content), LinkedIn determines Engagement as a percentage of impressions against the total number interactions and clicks. In the LinkedIn Analytics dashboard. 26. Hiring Updates This is a useful metric for brands to measure the competition, gain insights into the HR needs of the company and potential new products or services based on hiring patterns. This information is not available in the LinkedIn analytics dashboard. You will need to use a third party analytics platform that collects this data. There isn t a time on a social media cycle that you don t need the data or you need it more. Data is used to predict, plan, optimize, evaluate and then again use the data in order to plan the next one. Stavros Kontakstis Partner and Strategy Director at Avakon+. Read the full interview here.

14 Pinterest & Instagram Both of these platforms are in the nascent stages of offering analytics solutions to brands and focus primarily on vanity metrics that are useful for benchmarking against

14 14 Pinterest & Instagram Both of these platforms are in the nascent stages of offering analytics solutions to brands and focus primarily on vanity metrics that are useful for benchmarking against competitors but less so on helping with business objectives. 27. Hashtags Used on both Pinterest & Instagram, hashtags are an indication of an ongoing campaign but also allows a brand to tag similar content. Hashtags don t necessarily trend in the way they do on Twitter. Pinterest & Instagram do not provide this data directly, Use a third party analytics platform that gathers this data. 28. Pin / Re-pin Ratio This is very useful for brands to understand how well a board has been received. The higher the ratio, the more re-pins there have been, which increases the brand s visibility. Use a third party analytics platform that gathers this data.

15 29. Pin Source This is the place where the pin originated (either another website or was uploaded on Pinterest).

15 Pin Source This is the place where the pin originated (either another website or was uploaded on Pinterest). Brands can use this metric to understand how competitors are generating their content. Use a third party analytics platform that gathers this data. Both their advertising platforms are being beta tested at the moment and are invite only, once these advertising platforms open up to the general public, expect to see a rise in the number of metrics available in these platforms. We don t simply optimize social campaigns; we leverage social data to optimize customer experiences across channels at each stage of the journey. Randi Rosenfeld Social Media Director at MRM// McCann. Read the full interview here.

16 Thanks for downloading and reading these 29 Must-Know Terms For Every Social Media Analyst (and the people who work with them). Feel free to share this PDF with your colleagues and clients. If you would like to know which of these metrics is the most important to your competitor sign up for a free six day trial of Unmetric Click Here To Sign Up If you would like to get more information about Unmetric, send an to: info@unmetric.com Thank You

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