When I think about social media, I like to imagine little messengers going out and telling everyone about my new post. Every time someone finds out about it, they share it with someone else, who then share’s it with another person, and so on. Social media seems so simple, but it’s kind of crazy to think about how many eyes could end up on your content just by posting about it outside of your blog.
Take Pinterest for example. A few people initially pin your post, then their friends see it and pin it as well, and then their friends see it and pin it too, and if you’re lucky, that process will continue for a long time. Soon enough, you’ve got yourself a viral pin that will bring in readers for years to come. But how do you know which techniques are working, and benefitting your blog in the long run?
As my following has grown, it’s become a lot easier to keep track of my social media presence. More posts means more sharing, which means more data to go off of. I’ve also bookmarked my fair share of resources that are really helpful in this process, and today I want to share those with you!
ShareTally
I heard about this website a few weeks ago, and I can’t believe I hadn’t found it before. You input a url to a specific post, and it scans all the shares that post has gotten on 21 different social media platforms. It’s super specific too, getting down to the number of likes vs. shares vs. comments on Facebook. I love using this website to see the long term popularity of a post. I check it every once in a while and compare the number to see if an old post is still getting shared around, which is always a good thing!
Twitter Analytics
Twitter tracks a lot about the tweets you make, so why not take advantage of that! The engagement rate (the number of users who engaged with your tweet divided by the number of users who saw it) is a great way to see which tweets capture your audience’s attention the best. You might begin to see a trend between high engagement rates and a certain aspect of your tweets, like an added picture or the use of hashtags. The graph is also an awesome visual tool for seeing which days your tweets do the best.
Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest also came out with an analytics tool, and it’s probably one of my favorite resources. They track traditional data like profile views and repins, but they also include a section tailored to tracking pins from your website (if you have that hooked up to your Pinterest account). I LOVE this feature, because I can see which posts are doing the best, which images may need improving, and which pins are staying popular in the long term. Without this tool, I never would’ve known that my college shopping list post from last year got over 100 repins! That might not be a lot in the big blogging world, but anything over like, 10, is a huge accomplishment for me.
Pin Plugin
This tool isn’t as detailed as Pinterest analytics, but it gives you a quick look at how well a post did on Pinterest by gathering the total number of pins made from a specific post. If you don’t feel like digging through the traditional analytics system, this tool is perfect for you!
Iconosquare
This is my central hub for Instagram statistics. Along with its beautiful interface, it has all the stats you could possibly want to know about your Instagram. You can even track your follower count, which could be really helpful during giveaway times if you added your Instagram URL to one!
Bitly
Most people see this solely as a way to create short URL’s, but it has a great statistics tool too! If you create an account, you’ll get a feed of all the links you create and some data about their performance. You can see how many total clicks the link got, as well as the number of clicks made on each social media platform. This might help you rethink your link placement strategies if one platform isn’t doing as well as others.
Pinterest Source Page
I know, lots of Pinterest, but this platform has proven to be the most helpful for my blog, so I track it the most! I had no idea this page existed, but it’s pretty fantastic. It compiles all of the pins made from your website, making it a great visual representation of how popular a post is. Just add your blog’s URL to the end of it so you can see pins from your website.
Bonus: My new absolute favorite social media tool
If you’re a blogger and haven’t started using Boardbooster, you need to hop on that train. It’s a Pinterest scheduling tool, but it’s also so much more. You can loop your boards so all that great content you pinned gets used more than once, track your pins success, and create campaigns that let you pin to multiple boards on a schedule you create. Since I started using it a few months ago, I’ve gained over 4,000 followers and continue to gain at least 20 a day! You can start a free trial here, and after that ends, it only costs as little as $5 a month!