Photo credit: Sheila Scarborough
LinkedIn says its new analytics will give users new information and insights into their content audiences. The analytics and statistics, it says, will help professionals and businesses on LinkedIn determine if they’re reaching the right audience and which posts are earning the most interest and engagement.
You can look at the statistics for any of your past posts going back six months on the view graph. You can mouse over specific days to see the number of views, patterns for evergreen content, and sharing in a group increases views for a post, explains David Petherick, a digital marketing writer, who reviewed the analytics in a post for LinkedIn Pulse. Although LinkedIn officially announced the analytics on Thursday, Petherick received an advance view of the service.
The analytics show a summary of views, likes, comments and shares. By scrolling down the page, you can see which LinkedIn members have viewed, liked, commented and shared. That tells you whom you can thank for appreciating your content.
Its demographics section reveals insights into your audience, although it only shows logged in users, not all LinkedIn members. You can see who comments on a specific post, visit their profiles, and send them a message directly from the analytics page if they’re in your network.
Petherick, who’s based in Edinburgh, Scotland, learned he is surprisingly popular in Oregon and that being featured in LinkedIn Pulse provides the main boost for most post views. He also saw that his posts about French law fascinated many people in Chicago for some unknown reason.
Actionable Information
LinkedIn users can glean actionable information from the new analytics tool. They can:
• See the audience they’re reaching by industry, location and job title, and learn how it matches their target audience.
• See what’s driving their traffic and how they can try boosting traffic.
• Ascertain patterns of visitor behavior.
• Find people to thank and engage with.
LinkedIn’s Push into Publishing
The analytics service is an important step in LinkedIn’s effort to increase content publishing on its site. It also shows the growing recognition of the importance of analytics and measurement in content marketing.
Frequent users of Pulse, its self-publishing tool, should especially appreciate the data. The analytics will encourage LinkedIn fans to publish on the site, use the network more, and thereby increase its overall traffic. At least that’s what LinkedIn hopes.
LinkedIn’s last quarterly earnings report revised projected revenue estimates downward, causing its stock price to drop.
Earlier this year, LinkedIn opened publishing on Pulse to all 230 million users in English-speaking countries. It’s now publishing 100,000 posts a week, according to TechCrunch.
In the future, the platform may offer statistics on posts older than six months, perhaps as a premium product. LinkedIn might also at some point provide demographic information on post visitors not logged into the network.
Bottom Line: Professionals, businesses and others on LinkedIn will probably appreciate its beefed up analytics that provide important data about posts and audience. The new analytics service highlights the platform’s push into self-publishing and the importance of analytics in content marketing.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
William, thanks for the link to my original article, and for your incisive summary of the new features. I’ve heard from LinkedIn sources that these analytics should be available for everyone publishing on LinkedIn in the next day or so, to give authors important data about posts and audience. – Best, David