Article updated: September 05, 2023
Understand data in Analytics
Every now and then, you may find that Hootsuite Analytics data and the analytics data you see on a social network differ. This is usually due to the way Analytics retrieves and displays data. Read on for a better understanding.
How Analytics collects data
As soon as you add a social account to Hootsuite, Analytics starts collecting data for it. We retrieve data at least once a day and automatically refresh your reports so that you get the latest data for your metrics.
We report metrics in the GMT timezone.
We have the following limitations:
- We can only retrieve data for public posts. We can’t get data for unpublished (dark) posts.
- For Twitter accounts, we can only get data for the time an account is connected to Hootsuite. If an account disconnects and then reconnects, old data will be accessible. Hootsuite can’t collect or display data for the disconnected time. While we do our best to try to backfill data, events that happened when the account was disconnected can leave a data gap. Learn more about why social accounts disconnect and how to reconnect them.
Note: If you transfer or reclaim a social account from one Hootsuite account to another, we retain that data so you don’t lose it.
How Analytics backfills data
As soon as you add or reconnect an account to Hootsuite, Analytics starts to backfill data for it. Depending on the social network and account you add to Hootsuite, Analytics can backfill from 28 days to up to 12 months of historical data.
Note that it may take about an hour for Analytics to populate your views and reports when backfilling 12 months of historical data for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
See the table below for more information on how we backfill data for each social network.
| Social network | Type of metric | Data backfill |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook Pages | Page-level metrics | 12 months |
| Post and comment metrics |
| |
| Post-level metrics | 12 months | |
| Private messages |
| |
| Instagram Business | Page-level metrics | 12 months Exceptions: Up to 30 days for the Page new followers metric For the following metrics, we only collect the current day values:
|
| Post and comment metrics |
| |
| Post-level metrics | 12 months | |
| TikTok | Page-level metrics | 59 days |
| Post and comment metrics | Up to 12 months | |
| Post-level metrics | Up to 12 months | |
| LinkedIn Pages | Page-level metrics | 12 months with the exception of the Followers metric. LinkedIn does not provide backfill data for this metric |
| Post and comment metrics | The last 1,050 posts in the past 12 months. Limit of 21 pages * 50 posts. | |
| Post-level metrics | 12 months | |
| LinkedIn profiles | Posts | The last 1,000 posts in the past 12 months. Limit of 100 pages * 10 posts. |
| Post-level metrics | 12 months | |
| Page-level metrics | 28 days | |
| Post and comment metrics | 28 days | |
| Post-level metrics | 28 days | |
| Page- and post-level metrics | 90 days | |
| YouTube | Page- and post-level metrics | 12 months |
How Analytics stores data
Hootsuite stores numeric analytics data (for example, numbers of replies, comments, likes) indefinitely. But it stops updating analytics data for posts older than one month, even if they keep getting engagement.
Hootsuite stores analytics data (for posts) with the following limits:
- Inbound posts - 13 months.
- Outbound posts - Indefinitely (since January 2018).
- Tables of posts - Show the last 13 months of data.
Troubleshoot data warnings
If you get an 'incomplete data' or 'partial data' warning, your data may not be complete. This warning appears when:
- You are loading more than 500 accounts per social network into your report. In this case, some tiles in your report will include a partial data set. For a full report of all the accounts you selected, export or schedule an email export. Find out more about exporting an Analytics report.
- A social account disconnects and reconnects in your selected time period. Because data collection stops when a social account disconnects, the data for that time period may be missing. Make sure to check data for the selected time period and, if applicable, the comparison time period.
Troubleshoot data discrepancies
If you notice discrepancies between Hootsuite Analytics data and a social network's data, keep the following information in mind:
- Social networks and Hootsuite Analytics may aggregate data differently. For example, Hootsuite Analytics displays Instagram reach metrics as a daily total, whereas Instagram displays reach metrics for a 7-day or 30-day period.
- Social networks and Hootsuite Analytics may report metrics data in different time zones. For example, Instagram reports metrics in the Pacific Standard Time (PST) time zone while Analytics collects and reports metrics in the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) time zone. This can cause a slight discrepancy in numbers.
- Most Facebook metrics come from Facebook Insights. These metrics are only updated once a day.
- When your Twitteraccount disconnects and reconnects, Hootsuite can't collect or display data during that disconnected period, but you can still see previously collected data for the account. When this happens, the metrics may not match what you are seeing on Twitter. Learn how to reconnect a social account to Hootsuite.
Download and submit your Facebook and Instagram Insights data to Hootsuite support
We can help review your Insights data when you want to investigate data discrepancies. To do this, we need you to create a support request that includes the following information:
- Your Facebook Page’s Insights data. To download this data, ensure you are an admin for the Facebook Page. Then follow the steps in the Facebook help article How do I export my Facebook Page's Insights data?
- Your Instagram Insights data. To share this data, access your data on your mobile device (check out the Instagram help article View account insights on Instagram for instructions) and then take screenshots of the data screens.
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