Understand social media terms and metrics

Find definitions of key social media terms and metrics used in HubSpot’s social analytics and the custom report builder.

• AI assistance type: shows how AI was used to generate content for a social post (e.g., user generated or agent generated).
• Audience: the number of followers associated with your social account.
• Broadcast GUID: the unique id of the social post created in HubSpot before it is published on the network.
• Calendar start date: the event start date to use when displaying on a calendar.
• Campaign: the marketing campaign associated with the social post.
• Channel: the social media channel or page associated with the social post.
• Content type: the type of content included in the social post (e.g., video or photo).
• Derived social media engagement: the sum of reactions, comments, saves, and shares.
• Derived social media engagement rate: measures the rate from the number of people that interact with your posts (engagement) by the number of times your post was seen (impressions).
• Derived social media reactions: the sum of likes and reactions. This includes both positive and negative reactions, such as angry, thankful, wow, haha, love, and sad reactions.
• Derived social media video engagement: measures the rate of the total derived engagements by the total number of video views.
• Estimated minutes watched: the view time in minutes across published video posts associated with your social account.
• File: the file attached to the social post.
• Following: the number of users you follow on your social media account.
• HubSpot tracked link clicks: the number of times a link was clicked on a social post as reported by HubSpot.
• Clicks are tracked in HubSpot using shortened link URLs.
• It is expected that HubSpot tracked link clicks will differ from network clicks, which may include clicks to other elements.
• Impressions: the number of times your social post was viewed.
• Impressions paid: the total number of times your social post was viewed as a result of paid distribution.
• Likes: the number of times the social post was liked.
• Listed: the number of X lists that the social account has joined.
• New followers: the number of new followers that originated from a social post.
• Network link clicks: the number of clicks on a social post as reported by the social network.
• Clicks reported by the social network may include clicks to a link, post, social profile, or other element. This metric may vary by social network.
• It is expected that network clicks will differ from HubSpot tracked link clicks.
• Post description: the description of the social post, used primarily in YouTube video publishing.
• Post display URLs: the display version of URLs used in the post.
• Post media type: the type of media attached to the social post (e.g., photo or video)
• Post original URLs: the URLs within the post that haven't been shortened.
• Post shortened URLs: the shortened version of URLs used in the social post.
• Post tags: tags used to trigger engagement for a social post.
• Profile views: the number of social media profile views that originated from a social post.
• Published at: the timestamp when the social post was published on the network.
• Published from HubSpot: shows if the social post was created through HubSpot.
• Published posts: the number of social posts published under your social account.
• Reach: the total number of unique users who have viewed your social post.
• Reactions: the user interactions on a social post (e.g., love, haha, or angry reactions).
• Restricted to HubSpot published posts: shows if all social data is fetched for the selected channel or only for posts made through HubSpot.
• Saves: the number of times the social post was saved.
• Shares: the number of times the social post was shared.
• Social account type: the type of social media account (e.g., Facebook or LinkedIn). Individual channels and pages are organized under their respective social accounts.
• Social channel type: the channel within a social account that can publish social posts (e.g., LinkedIn profile or LinkedIn company page).
• Subscribers gained: the number of users subscribed to your YouTube account.
• Subscribers lost: the number of users that unsubscribed from your YouTube account.
• Target countries: the list of countries targeted in a social post.
• Target languages: the list of languages targeted on the social post.
• Total watch time: the total number of minutes a video in the social post was viewed.
• Video duration: the duration of the video in the social post, measured in seconds.
• Video views: the number of views a video in the social post received.
• Views: the number of views made across all published social posts associated with your social account.
• Website clicks: the total number of clicks made by a user that viewed your website from a social post.