One of the most popular tracking systems for websites is Google analytics. It offers tons of features and it is free. Here is a quick tip to analyze social network traffic on your website if you use Google analytics.

The traffic you gain by social networks can be viewed with Google analytics via the feature “Advanced Segments”.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Advanced segments to create a new segment

2. Create a new segment

- For the dimension click traffic sources > than drag the item “Source” to the segment.
- Fill in for condition: “Matches regular expression”.
- The value field needs to contain the social network names. For example:

digg|twitter|linkedin|myspace|facebook|stumbleupon

(the sources you want to analyze need to be seperated by | )

- Name the segment, something like “Social” and finally click the “Create Segment” button.

Put it into work
Once the segment is created you can use it in your dashboard and compare your social network traffic to other traffic you have (for example search traffic). On top of the graphs you will see an advanced segments dropdown to select the segment you just created.

Tags: google analytics, Marketing, tracking
Categories:Marketing, webdesign