What each analytics metric means

This page defines the numbers in CoSchedule's social reports, network by network, and explains why they can differ from what the network shows. Social analytics are available on Starter, Professional and Suite.

Analytics cover Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Engagement

Engagement is the interactions a social message earns. Engagement rate is your total engagements divided by the number of messages sent.

On Threads, views count as impressions, not engagement. Quotes aren't counted on individual messages; they're part of Content Interactions in the Threads profile report.

• Last Period: the period of the same length just before your report's date range. Your numbers are compared with it.
• Global Eng. Rate: in the Social Campaign Report, your whole calendar's engagement rate across all networks for the last 90 days, shown for comparison with the campaign. It's hidden while you compare campaigns.
• Lifetime Avg Engagement Rate: in the Social Engagement Report, the note under the Engagement Rate card. It's your total engagements (likes, comments, shares and clicks) divided by the number of messages sent, for your whole calendar since you started, rounded to 2 decimals. It ignores the report's date range and filters. It's engagements per message, not a percentage.

Profile report metrics

Social Profile Reports use these summary cards:

• Follows: your total followers, plus followers gained and lost in the date range.
• Views: how often your profile or page is seen. For Facebook, this is page views, roughly what Meta calls visits, not views of individual posts. Bluesky and Mastodon don't report views.
• Interactions: how people engage with your profile. What counts depends on the network (table below).
• Shares: how often your posts are shared, on networks that report it, such as Instagram.

Impressions

• Impression: one time a post is shown on someone's screen.
• Impression rate: total impressions divided by the number of messages sent.
• Facebook and LinkedIn reports split impressions into Organic, Paid, Viral and Other.

Why numbers differ from the network

Some difference between CoSchedule and a network's own analytics is expected:

• Definitions differ. CoSchedule counts the items in the tables above, which may not match what the network includes in a number with the same name.
• Networks share less with outside tools. Each network gives CoSchedule less data than it shows in its own analytics.
• Rounding. CoSchedule rounds some numbers.
• Time zones. Report date ranges end in your calendar's timezone, which may not match the network's. See Change your calendar name, timezone and date format.
• Collection schedule. A message's stats are collected at set times after it publishes, the last one 9 months later. See View analytics on a social message or campaign.
• Gaps while a profile needs reconnecting. Stats pause until you reconnect, and the missed days aren't filled in later.
• Data before you connected. Profile reports start 60 days before you first connected the profile.

If a number is missing rather than different, see Fix missing social analytics data.

Learn more

• View the Social Engagement Report
• View Social Profile Reports
• View the Social Campaign Report
• Fix missing social analytics data