As marketing professionals, we’re responsible for the creation and distribution of content across a variety of channels – along with the ever-changing and sometimes confusing analytics that attempt to quantify the impact of that content.
For this installment of Metrics That Matter (see links to earlier posts below about Google Analytics and other Social Media platforms), we’re going to provide some clarity on one of the social media platforms upon which many professionals rely – LinkedIn. We’ll help you better understand the various metrics available to you, including how well your LinkedIn Company Page is performing.
Visitor Analytics
The first menu option underneath the Analytics tab takes you to Visitors Analytics, which shows you overall traffic related to your page. The first section examines Visitor Highlights and shows the Page Views and Unique Visitors within the 30-day period (the end-date is always yesterday’s date). This is the most basic snapshot of traffic flowing through your page – and if the percentage signs show green, you know you’ve been making improvements.
The next section drills down into specific time intervals, which allows you to select beginning and end dates for the data chart to show. You can toggle between Page Views and Unique Visitors, select what Pages you want to see (Jobs-page, Life-page, etc.), and see whether visitors are using their desktop computer or mobile phone to access your content. You’re also able to view visitor demographics, which you can sort by industry, location, job function, and more.
Last is Life Page traffic, which shows the total number of visits to that page. This metric is valuable if you primarily use your Company page to recruit potential employees, because it gives them the opportunity to look deeper into what makes your company unique.
Update Analytics
The next menu option in the Analytics tab takes you to Update Analytics, or the engagement metrics tied to organic and sponsored updates. Like Visitor Analytics, the first section shows your update highlights, which quantify the number of likes, comments, and shares on your page over a 30-day period.
Next are your engagement metrics, which chart other data points – like Impressions, Clicks, Social Engagement %, and more. Here, you’re able to chart information spanning anywhere from 7-days to 12-months, which allows you to perform month-over-month comparative analyses. Was there a change in your marketing strategy? Did you have a special event that was well-attended? Was advertising recently utilized with your campaign and, if so, when? This section should be your go-to for better understanding the engagement you’re generating.
The last section is update engagement, which breaks down individual updates into a more granular view. Quite possibly the most helpful section available through LinkedIn Analytics, you’re able to view all updates and do side-by-side comparison, analyze trends, understand what content is producing higher social engagement percentage, and much more.
Follower Analytics
The last menu option available to you is Follower Analytics. As you would expect, the first section shows total followers, as well as those who have just followed you within the last 30 days.
Next is follower gains, which chart how your number of followers has changed over time. Like the engagement metrics, you’re able to chart information from 7-days to 12-months and discern between followers who were acquired organically or through sponsored content. Following this is follower demographics where, like Visitor Analytics, you’re able to see where followers originate, job function, and other key characteristics.
Finally, and a personal favorite of mine – companies to track. This section reveals search outcomes based on your profile and shows similar pages, which in turn allows you to do a competitive analysis of your page versus others. Once you select the time period, you’re given the total number of followers, number of updates, and engagement rate – along with comparative percentages in those categories.
As one of the most effective social media platforms in the B2B marketing realm, interpreting LinkedIn analytics data is critical to gauging campaign impact. With that deeper understanding will come a corresponding ability to articulate how those campaigns are driving business outcomes. The C-Suite will value your insights.
