How to use UTM Parameters to Track Social Media Activity [Blog Example]

This post will provide a quick overview on UTM parameters and how to use them to track blog post activity. In this blog on teaching social media analytics I have been describing a class project whereby students link Google Analytics to their WordPress blog and then track the results as they promote the blog on social media each week. (Zahay-Blatz, 2021). The students are instructed for the weekly assignments to change the blog and emphasize pictures and videos one particular week, long term content the next, for example, and track the results of these changes in Google Analytics.  The students promote the blog on social media and also use email marketing to gain readership. A good next step in teaching this material is to see if the students wish to try UTM tags, or parameters, to track and analyze blog activity.

What Are UTM Parameters?

UTM Parameters are an additional way of tracking traffic to a blog using Google Analytics. Essentially, “UTM parameters are short text codes that you add to URLs (or links) to help you track the performance of webpage or campaign.”  (Newberry, 2021). The parameters can be handy to help aggregate and report on traffic. UTM is short for Urchin Tracking Modules because they were created by Urchin Software, which was acquired by Google when it was building Google Analytics.  The parameters help identify and organize traffic and are useful in attribution analysis for those interested tracking conversions (Kanani, 2020).

What are the Five UTM Parameters?

There are five parameters that can be used to track traffic. These parameters can be pointed to a website, which means they can also be pointed to a blog. Stanis (2019). There are five tags that can be put at the end of the URL for a blog that then show up in Google Analytics. (Munroe, 2021).

The five parameters, or tags, are:

  1. utm_source: facebook, twitter or other source driving traffic
  2. utm_medium: the type of channel, cpc, social, paid social
  3. utm_campaign: the name of the campaign
  4. utm_term: specific keywords or phrases
  5. utm_content: different ad content such as video or text ad

For blog attribution in this project the first three tags are relevant in terms of tracking traffic from a particular social media network and channel and naming the campaign. The links to the blog posts below provide a good tutorial on how the process works.  There is more detail for those who wish to dive into the details of UTM tag creation and reporting.

How Are the Parameters Created?

Fortunately, there are several UTM generators available for marketing campaigns, most notably from Google Analytics, that make the process a bit easier.  I use Bitly as a URL to shorten my blog URLs and recently noticed the option to use UTM parameters in that tool. Figure 1 shows the results of using UTM generator in Bitly to create UTM tags for this blog post. It seems that Bitly is testing using UTM parameters in its URL shortening tool, so I took advantage of that capability.  The tags show up after each parameter.  I am looking to track Facebook traffic from organic social sources and named the campaign UTM_Post.

UTM, Google Analytics, tagging

Figure 1: UTM Parameters help track blog traffic.

 

The tags become part of the URL when entered the URL and filled out the parameters on bitly. It will be interesting to see how the traffic is tracked over the coming weeks. I will be able to report on source medium and campaign name to see these results.(Digital Marketing Extreme, 2021).

Please let me know if you have any other comments or suggestions on this post. I will return to this topic of teaching social media analytics and to this blog when next I teach this class.  Until then, please follow updates and tips on teaching digital marketing on my Zahay Teaches Digital (Marketing) blog.

 

References

Digital Marketing Extreme (2021). Retrieved from: https://digitalmarketingextreme.com/how-to/how-to-see-utm-parameters-in-google-analytics-reports/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Kanani, A. (September 25, 2020). [CXL Blog Post]. UTM Parameters: A Complete Guide for Traffic Attribution. https://cxl.com/blog/utm-parameters/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Munroe, M., (2021). [Hubspot Blog Post].  Understanding the Basics of UTM Parameters https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/understanding-basics-utm-parameters?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Newberry, C. (May 3, 2021). [Hootsuite Blog Post]. How to Use UTM Parameters to Track Social Media Success.  https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-utm-parameters/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Stanis, J. (October 21, 2019). [Weidert Blog Post]. What is UTM Code and How to use it.  https://www.weidert.com/blog/what-is-utm-code

Zahay-Blatz, D. (January 9, 2021). [Blog post]. One Secret to Teaching Social Media Analytics (A Blog Project). https://sites.stedwards.edu/dblatz/2021/01/08/secrets/ 

 

 

How to Assess Social Media Marketing Capabilities [Including the Social Media Audit]

It is critical in teaching social media marketing to arm students with the tools that they can apply in their professional setting.  While the blog project we have described in this blog is a good start for understanding how to write for a particular audience and to develop keywords and topics that will rank well in organic search, the process of social media marketing management must take place in a broader context. Social media metrics must be linked to a broader strategic plan, but how is this to be accomplished?  A good way to start linking overall company goals to social media marketing plans is .  through understanding existing social media marketing capabilities and making changes to the organization as appropriate.  Assessments and audits can provide data and insights into the overall company direction for social media marketing and help link social media actions to organizational goals.

The Demand Metric Model:  Assessing Social Media Marketing Capabilities

In a prior blog post I discussed a social media marketing maturity model by Hamel (Zahay, 2021).  The Demand Metric model (Demand Metric, 2021)  for assessing social media capabilities (Figure 1) is similar in its goal but different in its approach.  Rather than resulting in maturity level as in Hamel’s DAMM model, the Demand Metric model uses the eight criteria listed below to create an overall assessment score.  Each criteria is evaluated from 1-5 with five being the highest and then a weighted score is produced out of a total of 100.  In this example a total score of 57 is the result, indicating many areas for improvement. Areas of greatest opportunity are marked in yellow and red, whereas green indicates a strength.

One way to use this tool in the classroom is to ask students to evaluate a company with which they are familiar and then make recommendations based on the results. A nice thing about this model that distinguishes it from the Hamel model (See link below) is that it does generate a list of specific recommendations to help improve the organization’s social media marketing capabilities.  For example, if the company does not regularly monitor competitors, the tool recommends setting up Google Alerts for the competition.

demand metric, social media assessment

Figure 1: Demand Metric Social Media Assessment points to opportunities for organizational improvement

Demand Metric Social Media Marketing Maturity Assessment Criteria

The specific criteria used in the model are as follows:

Senior Management Commitment: Does senior management understand social media and is it committed to using these tools?

Social Media Knowledge: Does the firm understand the channels and how its employees and executives are using it currently? Is the firm continuing to increase its knowledge?

Customer Engagement: Does the firm participate in groups and forums that are necessary to understand the industry and the customer.  Are subscriber lists growing?

Competitive Insight: Does the firm track competitors on social media?

Staff & Resources: Are there defined roles and responsibilities and is someone in charge of social media?

Plan & Channel Selection: Is there a plan in place linking social media channels to company strategy?

Process Documentation:  Is there a process for integrating social media marketing into marketing practices and has the firm developed a calendar to select topics.

Governance and Measurement: Is there a social media policy in place including a privacy policy?  Have metrics been selected for success and are these reported to senior management in a dashboard or other format?

This type of assessment allows us to see how the organization is positioned to develop a social media program and report on its associated analytics.  The tool will also help the organization identify organizational weaknesses and then figure out what skills gaps are in the workforce and how to how to plan for an effective social media strategy.  The output of this type of assessment should be a strategic social media plan that fits with the organizations’ business goals.

Assessment versus the Social Media Audit

A social media audit, on the other hand, is a drill down into the specifics of an organization’s social media channels and presence on those channels. The purpose is to understand what is going on with the current situation and how to improve specific social media marketing efforts.. The social media audit can identify specific activities that are necessary for future success. For example, if the target audience  is often on Instagram but the company does not have a presence there, developing an Instagram presence presents an opportunity.

Khan (2018) suggests these following these steps in asking these ten questions in a social media audit. A sample audit is included in Figure 2.

  1. Which social media accounts are currently attached to the company?
  2. How are they currently being used?
  3. Have they gone dormant/are they being used for spam?
  4. Are the current messaging and social networks the best possible networks for the intended audience?
  5. How often is content posted to these accounts? Is the content relevant to the intended audience?
  6. What is the engagement like?
  7. How does engagement compare to the past?
  8. What happens when Googling the company name? What is the reputation of the firm online?
  9. What platforms and messages is the competition using?
  10. What is working well?

    khan, social media marketing audit

    Figure 2: Questions to ask in the social media marketing audit (Khan, 2018)

Another good resource for a social media audit template is HubSpot (2021).  The HubSpot template is more technical and relies heavily upon an the results  from Google Analytics. While valuable, it might not be the best fit for an organization that is less advanced in social media marketing and doesn’t have Analytics available.

Whichever tools the company picks, the social media audit and the assessment should work together. In the Demand Metric Model, the audit then feeds into Plan and Channel Selection section of the assessment tool. Therefore, the two types of tools (assessment and audit) work together to help focus the organization’s social media marketing efforts. As noted above, once the plan is developed, it must be tied to the organization’s goals and strategic plan. Teaching these tools prepares students to function in today’s current business environment by giving them ways to talk to upper management about social media efforts.

References

Demand Metric (2021). Social Media Maturity Assessment 

HubSpot (2021). Social Media Audit for Word & Google Docs

Khan, Gohar F, (2018), Creating Value with Social Media Analytics: Managing Aligning, and Mining Social Media, Text, Networks, Actions, Location, Apps, Hyperlinks. Multimedia & Search Engines Data. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform.

Zahay, D. (2021, February 22). How to Assess Maturity in Social Media Analytics [Using the DAMM Model]

Navigating Free Social Media Analytics Tools for the classroom [YES, FREE!]

One of the most challenging aspects of teaching social media analytics for educators at any level is finding free social media analytics tools. In our program at St. Edward’s University we don’t typically ask students to pay for technology like certifications and tools in our courses but instead rely on academic programs or tools that can be used for free. The number of free social media analytics tools is small but is sufficient to teach a class in social media analytics.  A link to a list of tolls with free trial periods is included a the end of this blog post.

This post will focus on the free tools that come with the social media platforms, the Hootsuite academic program and a further drill-down into Google Analytics. I will start with Google Analytics and build on the information in last week’s post.

Google Analytics as a Free Social Media Analytics tool

Google Analytics is a free social media analytics tool that comes with the Google suite, which we use at our University.  Last week I showed several Google analytics reports in the Universal Analytics option (Zahay-Blatz, 2021) While using Google Analytics might not spring to mind immediately as a tool for social media analytics, the tool is quite well-suited for a blog.  Last week’s blog showed how social media analytics would be used to illustrate and analyze the traffic from various social media networks

Metrics showing the numbers of sessions, the bounce rate and the session length can also provide insight into which content is most compelling.  Examining these metrics helps a student blogger see how much time users are spending on their content and which ones provide the most engagement.  The student can then adjust posts and set goals for improving (increasing) the time spent on the page and improving (reducing) the bounce rate.  Google Analytics can also show the sources of traffic to the blog by country and device and the times of day that users access the blog.  These analytics can also be used to adjust blog posts and posting times as appropriate.

Hoostsuite Academy for Free Social Media Analytics

Hootsuite® provides a free social media management tool through Hootsuite Academy (Hootsuite, 2021) that we use in our classes.  One benefit is that students can schedule posts in advance and see the effect of posting on different days and times of the week on engagement and other metrics.  Multiple posts are most helpful on Twitter where the feed goes by quickly and might not always be seen by the student’s target audience on the first posting.

While payment is required for more sophisticated analytics, I often use the stream dashboard (Figure 1) for a quick look at how things are going with my posts. I can easily see how many people have liked my posts in the three platforms I connect to in the free version, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (these also happen to be the major platforms on which I post). I can also track when my post or my profile is mentioned in another users feed.

social media analytics, hootsuite platform, mentions, likes engagement

Figure 1: Hootsuite streams show likes and mentions

Note that It is possible to connect pages and groups to the feed and the stream dashboard which is helpful if students have created a company page in Facebook or are posting to a specialist group in their category.  For example, I have had students promoting their fitness and real estate businesses and have promoted pages or groups in those specific areas.  I will show metrics from our Digital Marketing Academics group in the next section.  It is also possible to add a LinkedIn Showcase page which highlights a particular brand.

Social Media Network Analytics on Platforms

If Hootsuite Academy is not an option, or if your students want more insights into their blog activity, most social media networks provide their own free social media analytics tools that students can also use in reporting on their blog posts.  Metrics such as likes, shares and mentions are readily available.  To access more sophisticated analytics often requires additional access.  For example, in Facebook creating a group or a company page allows access to insights analytics. Figure 2 shows the analytics from our Facebook group for Digital Marketing Academics. I can easily see my top posts and which had the most reach and engagement, as well as metrics for the entire group.

Facebook, Facebook insights, posts

Figure 2: Analytics from Facebook Insights for our specialty group help guide post activity

Similarly, LinkedIn requires a company page for access to analytics.  Pinterest and Instagram also require a business account. These are all credible strategies for the social media blogging project.  Creating a group or company page can be a great way to attract followers for the specific content for a blog, build a personal brand and attract the right followers.

However, students might not want to create a specialty page for this project as it is only seven weeks in length. I then suggest that Twitter allows any of its users to see the analytics for its posts at analytics.twitter.com.  Figure 3 is a screenshot of my recent analytics.  I just started using Twitter again after a break over the Summer and it will be interesting to see if posting original content from this blog will improve the number of profile visits and followers to my Twitter account. In this case, I had made one Tweet in August that received 391 impressions and 11 engagements.  My previous top Tweet had 36 engagements. One of the things I am looking for on this blog is engagement so I can go back and see what it was about that particular Tweet, the content, the timing of the post, etc. that made it more engaging for my followers.

Twitter, engagement, reach, social media analytics

Figure 3: Twitter Analytics captures top posts, reach and engagement

Using Free Social Media Analytics Tools vs. Free Trials

Finally, another option is to have students set up a free trial account on tools such as Buffer, Sprout Social, Keyhole etc. (Read, 2021).  Many of these tools offer free trials that last from 14 to 30 days.  My approach is to let students set up these free accounts themselves or use tools that they already have available.  In our class, we use Google Analytics and offer the free Hootsuite® Platform certification through Hootsuite Academy.  The students use whatever free social media analytics tools are available on the platforms they have chosen to post on during the class.  If they wish to set up a paid account or use a free trial, they are welcome to do so and include those metrics in their weekly analysis of their social media analytics.

This article has focused on the free social media analytics tools that are available to facilitate this blogging project for a social media or social media analytics class. Resources mentioned here are listed below.  If you are an academic and are not a member of our Facebook group for Digital Marketing Academics (Parker, 2021) and wish to get quick access to these and other updates, you can join by following the link in the references section immediately after this post.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.

References

Hootsuite Academy (September 1, 2021).  Retrieved from https://education.hootsuite.com/

Parker, J. & Zahay, D. (2021).Digital Marketing Academics Facebook Group

Read, A. (September 1,2021).  [Buffer Blog post] Know What’s Working on Social Media:  27 Paid and Free Social Media Analytics Tools

Zahay-Blatz, D. (August 25, 2021). [Blog post] Using Google Analytics to Teach Social Media Analytics [Two Useful Reports]

Using Google Analytics to Track Blog Social Media Analytics [Two Useful Reports]

A new semester is starting and I am back to teaching Social Media Analytics. This blog about teaching social media focuses on a blog project where students create a class blog, promote it on social media and then report on the associated analytics, including Google Analytics.  To read about this process from the beginning, start reading the blog from the link below this posting. (Zahay, 2021)

One of the best things about connecting Google Analytics to a blog in teaching social media analytics is that GA will give a report of where traffic is coming from in terms of which social media network and which posts are creating traffic. Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media Studios, Inc. recently outlined this process in a blog post listed at the end of this post (Crestodina, 2021).

Social Media Analytics from the Channels Report

An easy first step is to create a standard report by selecting Acquisition, All Channels, Traffic. An example of this report from my own blog is included here. I recently reposted a post from February’s blog to share with other professors teaching social media.    It is clear to see which channels are driving traffic and that social media is the largest source of web traffic to my blog, over 75 percent.  I can also see that this post attracted a number of new users to my blog.  While the bounce rate is high, as is usual for a blog, viewers did spend almost a minute reading the post, which was relatively short. For more insight, I can drill down in this channels report (Figure 1) to see which social media sites are driving traffic.

google analytics, channels, social media analytics

Figure 1: Google Analytics Channels Report Shows Most Blog Traffic Comes from Social

 

Using a Custom Report for More Details

Andy Crestodina also includes in his blog a link to a custom report your students can import into their own Google Analytics.  I imported the report into the GA for this blog on teaching social media analytics. This report shown here (Figure 1) outlines in more detail exactly which social media sites are driving traffic, in this case Facebook and LinkedIn.

Social media, Analytics, blog analytics.

Figure 2: LinkedIn and Facebook Drive Most Social Traffic to This Blog

The report also allows a drill down to the links generating traffic by clicking on the various social channels.

social media analytics, blog analytics, google analytics.

Figure 3: Most Recent Traffic Comes from A Single Blog Post

In my own blog, (Figure 3) I can see that most of the social media traffic is coming from that repost of an earlier blog post I made around the middle of August.  Students as they analyze their own posts can see that posting on social media helps drive traffic to the blog and how.

These Google Analytics functions that allow for exploring social media analytics are a good way for students to improve their blog by seeing which posts gain the most traffic and how engaged their readers are on the blog. Take a look at the project below in my blog and see more details from Andy’s blog post on getting the most about social media traffic to your blog by using GA reporting functions. Please note for this project we are using the Universal Analytics (UA) version of Google Analytics as not GA4.  We think that the reporting functions are better suited to a blog using the original Google Analytics functions and reports.

References

Crestodina, A. (August 18, 2021).  [Blog post] How to Use Google Analytics to Track Social Media:  Here are 5 Quick Ways

Zahay-Blatz, D. (January 8, 2021). [Blog post] Teaching Social Media Analytics Blog

The Easy Way to Report and Measure Social Media Analytics (Reporting on a Blog)

Reporting on the Blog Project

I have been providing details of the blog project in my social media analytics course and wanted to show what the students report each week regarding their blog posts that they promote on social media.  There are many ways to set up this spreadsheet and this is one way.  Many thanks to Dr. Leila Samii at Southern New Hampshire University and Dr. Holly Syrdal at Texas State University for their inspiration on this project. In this class, we have the students create five blog posts and post them on Monday. On Sunday night they report the week’s activity on a spreadsheet.

The First Tab: Overall Results and Future Goals

This spreadsheet has been anonymized so the student and the blog cannot be identified. On the first tab students answer a series of questions each week about the date they posted, the time frame they are analyzing and the effect of this week’s activity.  For example, this week students are encouraged to to write a post optimized to be put on social media. While students always promote on social media, in some weeks they might be encouraged to write an email or do something else to analyze the effect of traffic on the blog. Students must analyze where traffic is coming from and goals for the coming week.  Most important, students must include a permanent link to that week’s blog post, known as a permalink.  This helps the instructor go to the correct blog link for evaluation purposes.  Students also submit this permalink in another assignment on Canvas where they are graded on best blogging practices as discussed in the HubSpot Content Marketing certification and other class materials.  The first student tab looks like this Figure below.

Tab showing results and future goals social media metrics

First tab showing the date of the post, the timeframe analyzed, results, future goals and permalink

The Second Tab: Analytics Detailed

The next spreadsheet tab is an overview of the Google Analytics and the two social media networks selected for the project. As we are focusing on a blog to emphasize the students’ personal professional brand, we now require LinkedIn to be one of the networks.  In this example, the student chose Twitter and Facebook.  Students also report on the Google Analytics (GA) for their blog using the UA property as discussed in a prior blog post.  Students must pick at least five metrics for each network and GA.  This student also showed the additional tools such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck and the native analytics available in Facebook that were used for analysis.

Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, Metrics

Second Tab Showing Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter Metrics for Two Weeks of Blogging

The Final Tabs: Details of Posting

Twitter analytics for blog post promotion

Third Tab Showing Weekly Twitter Analytics for Blog Post Promotion

The final tabs of the spreadsheet show the details of each week’s social media postings to promote the blog readership.  In this example, the student has made a number of Twitter posts and can see how the results varied by time of day and type of posts.  Typically, students will report their results in a discussion post and other students can provide ideas as to how to improve engagement and reach on particular social media platforms.  Students also comment on how to improve their blog posts and those of fellow students’ blogs by improving headlines, storytelling and other effective blog practices.

The discussion format means that everyone can share in developing their knowledge of metrics and of effective blogging.  Students put it all together in a final reflection paper for the project. They say what worked well and what they would have done differently.  Five blog posts in seven weeks of class including blog setup is not a lot of time so we can’t evaluate the students on gaining a large audience and lots of engagement in such a short period.  We can get them thinking about social media analytics and what they mean and how to best use them for their professional brand and in the workplace.

The Results

As I said in my first blog post on this project (Zahay, 2021), the idea is to give experience in social media analytics by have students, plan, implement and measure a social media campaign to promote their blog.  It has been a successful project so far in our classes and, after initial concerns, popular with the students. One of the most interesting things about this project is how much can be gained from simply reporting in an excel spreadsheet.  I asked the students if they wanted to keep the spreadsheet in the assignment and they said yes.  They liked the discipline of reporting each week and being able to see things in black and white to make adjustments to their weekly goals and tactics.

If you are just coming upon this blog post and want to learn how to get started with this project, check out the first post in this blog on teaching social media analytics below (Zahay, 2021). Please contact me with any questions or for additional resources.

References

Zahay, D. (2021, January 8). One Secret to Teaching Social Media Analytics (A Blog Project). Retrieved from https://zahayteachesdigital.blogspot.com/2018/09/secrets-to-teaching-google-analytics.html

 

How to Set Up Blog Analytics for a Class Project (The Details)

The Project

The blogging project that I introduced in my last post allows the students to create a blog of their choice and then promote it and track it over various forms of social media. It is important to link the blog to Google Analytics for tracking purposes.  This post will explain how to structure the project and some technical details for tracking in other forms of social media.

Linking the Blog to GA

As mentioned before, it is important to link the blog to Google Analytics so students can see where there traffic is coming from, the time people spend on the blog and the blog rate.  The new GA4 does not seem to be fully integrated with most blogging platforms and does not include the same metrics as GA4 (a topic for another blog post).  GA will not be updated but is not going away, so can still be used for the blog project. During the last post, it looked like the analytics would be in GA4, but I have done some more digging and am happy to report that prior instructions for this project that I have posted using Blogger as an example will work.

Fortunately, when creating the blog, it is possible select the option to create a both UA (Universal Analytics) and a GA4 property. Be sure to create both or these instructions will not work.  Connect GA to the blog and by navigating to the Tracking  ID (also known informally as a UA Code) information in the GA property and copying that into Blogger or WordPress. The WordPress example showing where to find the Tracking ID is below.   Follow the instructions for copying and pasting the UA code into Blogger by reading Dr. Zahay’s updated blog post from  2018 in the references section below. Follow these instructions if you are using WordPress (Zahay, 2018).

To show how to grab the UA code in GA

UA code in GA 4

In WordPress, the place to copy the UA code is in settings.

How to link GA to WordPress via GA tracking code

Linking GA to WordPress via Tracking Code in Settings.

I demonstrated the Google Analytics on my own blog and also showed how to create a shortened URL on bit.ly and track blog activity that way. There are other ways to create a short URL for tracking purposes and you can discuss that in class.

GA Blog

Google Analytics for This Blog

By analyzing the data from GA I can see that most of my traffic is coming from social media.  The blog has not been around enough to be served up in search.  So I can focus on more keyword rich posts that can be found in direct search easily so I can be found in search. I can post at the time of day my readers are available to read the post. This is the type of analysis the students are doing in a spreadsheet format.

Students select two social media networks and GA to report upon in each week after blogging.  This idea was inspired by a similar social media project that was created by Dr. Leila Samii at the University of Southern New Hampshire.  Students choose at lease five metrics they wish to track on GA and on two social media networks and also create weekly goals for their blog.  They submit the results and a brief analysis for several different types of blog posts, i.e., original content, pictures or videos, long form, sharing content created by an influencer, etc.

Other Analytics

For this blog, I was able to post the information in our own Facebook Digital Marketing Academics Group and therefore had access to Facebook Insights.  There was good engagement on the post and a lot of enthusiasm for a blog on teaching Social Media Analytics, so I knew I was on the right track for the blog.  Over two-thirds of active group members saw the blog post and ten percent of those clicked on the link. Encourage the students to start their own group or a related company page on their blog topic to gain access to Facebook Insights.

Facebook insights

Facebook Insights on Blog Post Activity

These  are the metrics in Twitter for the first blog post.

Twitter Analytics for blog

Twitter Analytics Promoting Blog

As you can see, I get more engagement on Facebook since I am active on that platform and involved in sharing tips on teaching digital marketing in various groups there.  There was a fair amount of engagement but a smaller percentage of clicks. My LinkedIn posting also got good results as I am active there and have a lot of contacts.

So this is the type of analyses that students can do each week as they post their new blog topics.  This project is an excellent way to learn social media analytics in a short time frame and does not require students to use an account from another company. Next time I will talk more about the analytics spreadsheet. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  Happy Blogging!

References

Zahay, D. (2018, September 8). Secrets to Teaching Google Analytics the Easy Way. Retrieved from https://zahayteachesdigital.blogspot.com/2018/09/secrets-to-teaching-google-analytics.html