Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Seeking Out Hidden Content Metrics

Tracking content requires you do a bit of stealth thinking. If you make the tracking obvious, the content won’t be good, and people won’t come back for more — one hit wonders are fine, but you want those visitors and shares to convert into leads, sales, supporters, or enthusiastic fans, not just wander off.

Hidden content metrics may be a strange way to think about it, but you can get information back from anything you put out into the web, if you set it up correctly. For example, the comment system you use on your blog matters.

Some comment systems offer social sharing, a feature you want, but you also want them to either offer their own metrics tracking or integrate with your URL shortener of choice so that you can track those shares. A favorite in my office is Disqus for its social shares, mention tracking, and integration with Bit.ly.

Using your permalinks (the links that lead users to a specific post) matters as well. If you’re a WordPress user, then you’re familiar with its date and number-based default links. Having a link that is http://yourdomain.com/?123 doesn’t help you find and track your content. Going into your WordPress settings and changing the default post link to end with the title of your post is much smarter and makes your links more metrics-friendly.

Use trackable links for things you link to inside your content as well. If you’re going to link to a source, tag it with a Bit.ly link so that you can see how many people were ...