Assessing the analytics role: numbers, questions and the owner report

Three jobs, not one dashboard

A chart still needs someone to read it. Split the role into three jobs and assess each.

• Measure. Report the same few numbers every period, defined the same way.
• Explain. Answer a question in words: what worked, what did not, what changed.
• Report. Write the account that goes to the person who pays for the marketing.

The numbers check

Ask which numbers the agent reports and how each is defined. Four cover most social work: how many people looked at your profile, how many clicked a link, how many interactions your content received in total, and the engagement rate, which sets interactions against audience.

Fewer numbers, held steady, are more use than many that shift. Ask whether the figures cover all your platforms together or one at a time, and over what period. Then compare one number with what the platform's own app shows for the same dates.

The question check

This is where an agent differs from a dashboard. Ask something you would ask a colleague: 'Which of last month's posts brought the most clicks, and what did they have in common?' A fair answer names the posts, gives the figures and offers a reason you can check.

Push once more: 'So what should we do next week?' An agent that also holds the planning role should be able to turn the answer into a calendar entry.

Watch for one failure in particular: a confident answer with no figures behind it. If the agent cannot point to the posts and the numbers, treat the explanation as a guess.

The report check

Ask for the report as the owner would receive it. Read it for three qualities. It should be short enough to finish. It should say what was done as well as what resulted. And it should be honest about a flat month. A report that only ever contains good news will stop being read.

Check the mechanics as well: who receives it, on what schedule, and whether it arrives without anyone having to ask.

What no marketing agent can see

Social analytics stop at the click. What happens afterwards lives elsewhere: in your register, your booking system, your online store and your website's own analytics. Search rankings and website traffic are a separate field again.

Keep a simple habit to bridge the gap. Each period, write your own sales or bookings figure next to the agent's report. After three or four periods you will see whether the two move together.

Where Link AI fits

Link AI by Linkme is our pick for this role, and each of the three jobs has a counterpart on Linkme's page. For measuring, Analytics shows profile views, link clicks, total interactions and engagement rate. For explaining, the chat takes questions, and 'Which recent posts drove engagement and sales?' is one of the page's examples. For reporting, the Reports feature has Link AI write the owner report and send it to the owner. The strategist role then puts the trends it spots on the calendar.

Two more counts sit outside Analytics: opens and clicks for email Campaigns, and visits for Pages and QR codes. Link AI does not do SEO, and Linkme's page describes no website analytics. To see a report on your own accounts, book a demo to try Link AI.

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