Where to Find Your Social Media Analytics: A Simple Guide for Genealogists
Have you ever known that a social media platform has analytics somewhere...but couldn't figure out where they put them?
You're not imagining things.
Social media platforms change menus, rename features, move buttons, and sometimes provide different analytics depending on whether you're using a personal profile, professional account, business account, or Page.
It can be frustrating, especially when managing social media isn't your full-time job.
Last week, we talked about making one Simple Shift in the way we think about analytics:
Your analytics aren't a report card. They're clues.
But those clues aren't particularly helpful if you can't find them.
So this week, we're tackling the next step.
Where are your analytics hiding?
And we're going to keep this simple.
You don't need to check six dashboards every week. You don't need to track every number a platform gives you. You don't even need to use every platform included in this guide.
Find the platform or platforms you actually use and start there.
Before We Start: Your Screen May Look Different
There's one thing I want you to know before you start clicking around.
You may not see exactly what someone else sees.
Some analytics features depend on the type of account you have, the device you're using, or whether you're looking at the mobile app or desktop version.
Platforms also change their interfaces regularly.
So don't assume you're doing something wrong if a button isn't exactly where you expected it to be.
Our goal isn't to memorize a series of clicks.
It's to learn where your platforms generally keep the information you need.
For a Facebook Page, people with the appropriate Page access can view Page and post Insights. Meta also supports managing Page insights through Meta Business Suite.
📍 Where to Look
Facebook Page → Meta Business Suite → Insights
Then choose the area you want to explore, such as your content or overall Page performance.
Using Facebook as an individual family historian? Don't worry if you don't see the same analytics options as someone managing a Page. The information available depends partly on how you're using Facebook and the type of profile/Page you're managing.
This one needs an important qualifier. Detailed Instagram Insights are associated with professional accounts, meaning Creator or Business accounts.
📍 Where to Look
Instagram professional account → Professional dashboard → Insights
Don't see Insights? Check what type of Instagram account you're using. A personal account won't necessarily have the same analytics tools available to a professional account.
LinkedIn is actually one of the easier ones right now.
For an individual profile:
📍 Where to Look
LinkedIn → Me → View Profile → Analytics → Show all
LinkedIn says all members have access to creator analytics, including combined post analytics and audience analytics.
For one particular post:
Your post → View analytics
Readers can see things such as impressions, members reached, engagement, profile activity, link engagement and, depending on the content, additional measurements.
For a society or business with a LinkedIn Page:
📍 Where to Look
LinkedIn Page → Admin view → Analytics
Page admins can explore content, followers, visitors, search appearances and other analytics
TikTok
TikTok has centralized much of this inside TikTok Studio, which actually makes our instructions pretty simple.
📍 In the TikTok app
Profile → ☰ Menu → TikTok Studio
TikTok Studio includes analytics for account performance, content and followers.
TikTok says these creator tools are available to both Personal and Business Accounts, although some individual features vary.
For an individual post, readers can also open their post and tap More insights or More data, when shown.
TikTok Studio itself breaks analytics into areas such as Overview, Content, Viewers and Followers.
X
X's analytics offerings and access have changed considerably, and its official help information isn't currently giving me the same clean, universal account-level path that LinkedIn and TikTok provide. X does still document analytics within some of its creator/media tools, including Media Studio.
X analytics access can vary depending on your account and the features currently available to you. Look for analytics or post-performance information associated with your individual posts and account tools. Don't be concerned if your options don't match what another X user sees.
Bluesky
Bluesky is a little different from some of the older social networks.
If you're using it to connect with other family historians, historians, archives, or genealogy organizations, don't feel pressured to find a giant analytics dashboard simply because other platforms have one.
Pay attention to the information Bluesky makes available around your posts and interactions, but also pay attention to the conversations themselves.
Who responds?
What gets reposted?
Which subjects start conversations?
Which posts bring new people into your community?
Remember something we talked about last week:
Not every useful social media clue lives inside an analytics dashboard.
You Don't Need to Check Everything
After visiting a few of these platforms, it's very easy to fall into another trap.
You start thinking you need to monitor everything.
You don't.
If you're a family historian primarily using Facebook and Instagram, those are the platforms I'd learn first.
If you're a professional genealogist building connections on LinkedIn and Facebook, start there.
If you're a society volunteer responsible for Facebook, don't worry about mastering TikTok analytics because somebody told you TikTok is important.
Learn the platforms you're actually using.
And more importantly, learn to look at your analytics when you have a question.
That brings us back to this week's Simple Shift.
The Simple Shift
Stop trying to track everything. Start knowing where to look.
That's a very different relationship with analytics.
Instead of analytics becoming another task on your already crowded social media checklist, they become a tool.
You post something.
You get curious.
You know where to look for clues.
That's enough.
Your Five-Minute Analytics Check
Let's keep this week's assignment just as simple as last week's.
Choose one social media platform.
Find your analytics.
Then choose one post you've shared recently and look at the information available for that post.
Don't analyze it.
Don't compare it with someone else's account.
Don't decide whether the post succeeded or failed.
Instead, find one number or term you don't understand.
Maybe it's reach. Impressions. Engagement. Views. Watch time. Clicks. Or something else entirely.
Write it down.
Because next week, we're going to start translating some of this analytics language into plain English.
And once you understand what those numbers actually represent, those mysterious dashboards are going to start looking a lot less intimidating.
What Should We Decode Next?
Before you leave, I want to hear from you.
What's the one social media analytics term or number you wish someone would explain in plain English?
Leave a comment or send me a message and tell me.
Your questions are helping shape this September series, and there's a good chance the thing confusing you is confusing someone else, too.
For now, don't worry about understanding everything.
Just learn where to look. 🔎
Comments