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  Article updated: November 22, 2024

Get started with Hootsuite Analytics

Tracking and analyzing your social media performance can help you get better at social. It can help you understand which social networks work best for your brand as well as which types of posts grab attention, drive engagement, and grow your audience.

Keeping an eye on your social metrics can also show you where you can improve engagement and grow your audience. For example, data can show you the best times to post based on when your audience is online and interacting with your content. You can also see which types of posts your audience finds most engaging. You can then analyze them, figure out why they worked, and use that information to create better posts.

Tip: Not sure what social media analytics is, how you should use it, or why? Check out What is Social Media Analytics? Everything You Need to Know.

About analytics in Hootsuite

Hootsuite helps you track and measure your results on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok. Whether you want to identify your most engaging posts, see how your campaigns are performing, or uncover opportunities to get your brand in front of more people, Hootsuite has you covered with insights and reports to help drive your social strategy.

Note:Hootsuite collects and displays data on all your social media posts, accounts, and activities - whether you publish through Hootsuite or directly on a social network.

Open Hootsuite and go to Analytics.

Introduction to hootsuite analytics video.

Before you begin

If this is your first time using analytics in Hootsuite, make sure you connect your social accounts to Hootsuite. We also recommend creating and publishing a few posts on your social networks and accounts. Find out more about getting started with Hootsuite.

How to get started with analytics

Familiarize yourself with analytics and how to get started reviewing your social results. Interested in exploring the power of Hootsuite Analytics? Check out our demo reports. You can find these when you select Create a report, and then select Demo reports in Analytics.

Review your most successful posts

Want to find out which of your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok got the most comments, reactions, likes, or clicks? Go to the Post performance view to see how your audience interacted with your social content.

Learn how to review your overall post performance.

Find out when to post

When, exactly, is the best time to post on social media? If you’ve spent time researching the topic, you already know there are some generic, suggested times to post for each industry and social network. But chances are you’ll be more successful if you base this decision on your own data- data that tells you exactly when your audience is online and more likely to notice and interact with your posts.

Luckily, you don’t need to do any advanced analysis yourself. Go to the Best time to publish view to get recommendations on the optimal times to post on every social network. We personalize recommendations for you based on your past post performance and when your audience is online.

Learn how to get your best times to post.

View your weekly score and insights

Visit your Weekly score and insights in Analytics to gauge your progress and identify what's driving your results on social. Your social performance score provides a weekly snapshot of your social media performance on your Facebook Pages, LinkedIn Pages, or Instagram business accounts. In addition, you'll get insights and recommendations to help you improve and strengthen your social media presence.

Create a report

While the views in Organic reporting show you the overall performance of your posts, you can get better insights with reports.

Select Create a report and choose one of the following:

  • Pre-built template reports - You can use pre-built template reports to track your performance by goal or by social network. These reports include the key metrics to help you track specific business goals like brand awareness or engagement. This is a good option if you’re a beginner and aren’t sure which metrics to monitor; or if you just want to save yourself the time and hassle of having to create custom reports from scratch.
    Tip: Not sure which reports to focus on? Select Demo reports to view sample demo report data and get an idea of what you can do with Hootsuite Analytics.
  • Custom report - You can create your own custom reports and decide which metrics you want to add and analyze in your reports. This is a good option if you're familiar with metrics and know what results you want to track.

Learn how to create a report.

Compare results across time frames

You can analyze trends over time by comparing two time frames. For example, you may want to compare engagement on your Facebook posts from last week to the previous week. Create a Facebook engagement report, select a date range at the top, select Compare with another period, and then select the date range to compare it to.

Learn how to track your results over time.

Compare results across social networks

You can use reports to track and compare your performance across social networks. This helps you identify the social networks with the strongest engagement and results.

If you’re a beginner or want to save time, you can use a pre-built report template such as Multiple networks overview to compare results between all social networks.

Learn how to create a report.

Customize your shortcuts

Create report shortcuts so you can quickly access the reports that you monitor often. For example, if you know you’re checking engagement results for your Facebook Pages once or several times a day, you can create a Facebook engagement report, and then pin it to your navigation.

Go to All reports, point to a report, select More actions, and then select Pin.

Learn how to manage your reports.

Share a report or schedule an automatic export to your email

Share results with your team or schedule email exports to automatically email you and your team the latest report.

Learn how to share a report.

Next steps

Check out Measure social media success with Hootsuite for guidance, examples, and tips on how to get more out of Hootsuite analytics.

Training: Sign up for Live Product Training and learn how to build success with Hootsuite.

 

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