Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Google Analytics

The granddaddy of them all (and definitely the most well known), Google Analytics (see Figure 22-1) remains a heavy hitter in the social media metrics space. Google put metrics into the hands of everyone when it introduced Google Analytics. When Google started allowing users to link between services, it had a measurement powerhouse.

I talk a lot about using Google Analytics for your metrics in this book because of its exceptionally adaptable and customizable features. By giving you so many custom reporting and tracking features, Google Analytics makes it easy to customize the way you drill down into your data.

The most killer aspect of Google Analytics is, of course, that it’s free. For folks on a budget, this is key. Add in the fact that Google layers in AdWords, YouTube, and other Google tools, and you have an easy-to-integrate tool.

The custom reports and export to Google Docs (where you can make those spreadsheets I talk about) features are also invaluable reasons to use Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is probably the analytics tool that I personally recommend most often (and certainly the one I use the most across the most sites and campaigns). It’s certainly the most widely known and, one could argue, the most accessible.

One other thing I enjoy about Google Analytics is how many other third-party tools integrate with it. You can pull Google Analytics into a variety of plug-ins and applications and use it to get more layered, accurate results and take ...