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  Article updated: March 21, 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 We can’t get data for unpublished (dark) posts.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.

Table with data backfill information for each type of metric and social network
Social networkType of metricData backfill
Facebook PagesPage-level metrics
  • 12 months
Post and comment metrics
  • 12 months
  • Up to 20 comments per post
Post-level metrics
  • 12 months
Private messages
  • 12 months
  • Up to 20,000 conversations of up to 20,000 messages each, none older than 12 months
Instagram BusinessPage-level metrics
  • 12 months

Exceptions:

  • Up to 30 days for the Page new followers metric
  • For the following lifetime metrics, we only collect the current day values:
    • Page total followers
    • Audience by age, city, country, gender and age, language
Post and comment metrics
  • 12 months
  • Up to 500 comments per post
  • Up to 50 replies per comment
Post-level metrics
  • 12 months
TikTokPage-level metrics
  • 59 days
Post and comment metrics
  • Up to 12 months
Post-level metrics
  • Up to 12 months
LinkedIn PagesPage-level metrics
  • 12 months
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 profilesPosts
  • The last 1,000 posts in the past 12 months. Limit of 100 pages * 10 posts.
Post-level metrics
  • 12 months
TwitterPage-level metrics
  • 28 days
Post and comment metrics
  • 28 days
Post-level metrics
  • 28 days

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.
Note: Data may show up in the grayed-out section of your report. This happens when Hootsuite attempts an automatic backfill (for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn) after you reconnect a disconnected account. In this case, the data is still considered incomplete.

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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