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  Article updated: July 19, 2024

Understand data in Analytics

Every now and then, you may find that Hootsuite data and the analytics data you see on a social network differ. This is usually due to the way Hootsuite retrieves and displays data. Read on for a better understanding.

How Hootsuite collects analytics data

As soon as you add a social account, Hootsuite 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 We can’t get data for unpublished (dark) posts.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 X (formerly 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.
  • Due to limitations from Meta, HootsuiteFacebook Page-level metrics differ from Facebook Business manager by one day. The Hootsuite metrics count a day ahead.

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 Hootsuite backfills data

As soon as you add or reconnect an account, Hootsuite starts to backfill data for it. Depending on the social network and account type, Hootsuite can backfill from 28 days to up to 12 months of historical data. For ad campaigns, ad sets, and ads, we backfill up to 30 days of historical data.

Note that it may take about an hour for Hootsuite to populate your views and reports when backfilling large amounts of historical data.

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 network Type of metric Data backfill
Facebook Pages Page-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 with up to 20,000 messages each, none older than 12 months

Instagram Business

(We cannot backfill data for Instagram stories)

 Page-level metrics

12 months with the following exceptions:

  • Up to 30 days for the following metrics: Page new followers, Lost followers, Page engagement, Page engagement rate, Reached audience, and Engaged audience metrics
  • Current day only for the following metrics: Page total followers and Audience (this applies to all breakdowns for these metrics - age, city, country, gender, and language)
Post and comment metrics
  • 12 months
  • Up to 500 comments per post
  • Up to 50 replies per comment
Post-level metrics

12 months
TikTok Page-level metrics

59 days with the exception of the Followers metric. TikTok does not provide backfill data for this metric
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 Page new followers and Followers metric. LinkedIn does not provide backfill data for these metrics
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
X (formerly Twitter) Page-level metrics

Values for the current day
Post and comment metrics

28 days
Post-level metrics

28 days
Pinterest Page- and post-level metrics 90 days
YouTube Page- and post-level metrics 12 months

How Hootsuite stores data

Hootsuite stores numeric analytics data (for example, numbers of replies, comments, likes) indefinitely. Hootsuite stores analytics data (for posts) with the following limits:

  • Inbound posts and daily ads - 25 months
  • Outbound posts - Indefinitely (since January 2018)
  • Tables of posts - Indefinitely (since January 2018)
  • Page-level metrics - Indefinitely

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 a 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, X, 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 data and a social network's data, keep the following information in mind:

  • Social networks and Hootsuite may aggregate data differently. For example, Hootsuite 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 may report metrics data in different time zones. For example, Instagram reports metrics in the Pacific Standard Time (PST) time zone while Hootsuite 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 X (formerly Twitter) account 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 X (formerly 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 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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