Use Relative metrics report to accurately compare several accounts with different numbers of Followers.

Why is this report important? Because having 50 Likes per Post with 500 Followers is a great achievement, but having 50 Likes per Post with 5 million Followers is a great defeat.

Also, since you and your competitors have a different Number of Followers, this difference needs to be taken into account to accurately compare your results. That’s why it is helpful to calculate Relative metrics divided by the Number of Followers.

By default, Relative metrics show the activity per 1000 Followers. Use a switcher at the bottom of the page to select per how many followers you wish the metrics to be calculated. This is because it’s easier to report to a boss that you have 5 Likes per post per 1000 Followers, than 0.005 of a Like per post per 1 Follower.

relative metrics switcher
You can select unlimited (depends on your subscription type) number of accounts to compare simultaneously and there are 2 reporting views you can switch to:

  • Average - an average result, calculated as the average value for all metrics among the accounts you have included in the report.
  • Maximum - the best result, calculated as the maximum value of metrics among the accounts included in the report.

For example, the screenshot below shows that Coca Cola has reached only 23% of the maximum possible result for Conversation rate on Twitter, based on the results from Coca Cola and 4 of their top competitors’ results (Maximum tab).

how to interpret competitive analysis results
As for the Average tab, it shows how your and competitors’ accounts are performing compared to the average results. Here, 100% is the average value, and for example, 50% would indicate that your results are half that of the average among selected accounts.

How do I connect a social media account if I don't know its login credentials?

You don’t need to know any login credentials to do this, all you need to know is the link to social media profiles. You can even connect your competitors' accounts.

Note: when you connect a social media account for Twitter, YouTube, or Tumblr, you will be asked to authorize TrueSocialMetrics for read-only access to your account (we can't post anything from your Twitter account). This is necessary to provide TrueSocialMetrics with access to APIs for these social networks. It will use your personal account login credentials, not the credentials of the analyzed account.

receiving twitter auth token
After you click the ‘Authorize app’/‘Grant access’/‘Allow’ button, you will be redirected to a form where you will then need to input the account link or Twitter handle of the account you wish to analyze. That’s all you need to do. You don’t need to know any login credentials.

connect twitter account

How can I add more brands/competitors to analyze?

Here's a quick tutorial on "How to add more brands/competitors".

Why are my figures different from what I see in my social media account?

For some social networks (Blog, YouTube, Linkedin, Tumblr, Instagram, Slideshare, Vimeo) we additionally collect data from other places besides the channel (e.g., Disqus, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg).

You can find out where each metric was collected from at the All Posts report:

posts analytics data sources
Read more about data collection sources here.

What is the 'Untitled' account?

It's just the name of the first created account in your accounts list. You can rename it in Settings->Account page.

Relative Amplification rate - indicates how many times on average each of your posts was Shared/Retweeted per 1000 Followers (e.g. Relative Amplification rate per 1000 Followers = 1 means that out of 1000 Followers, your post was shared on average 1 time).

Relative Amplification rate = # of Shares / # of Posts / # of Fans * 1000

Relative Conversation rate - indicates how many times on average each of your posts was Commented on by 1000 Followers (e.g. Relative Conversation rate per 1000 Followers = 2 means that out of 1000 Followers, your posts receive an average of 2 comments per post).

Relative Conversation rate = # of Comments/ # of Posts / # of Fans * 1000

Relative Applause rate - indicates how many times on average each of your posts was Liked by 1000 Followers (e.g. Relative Applause rate per 1000 Followers = 3 means that out of 1000 Followers, your posts receive an average of 3 likes per post).

Relative Applause rate = # of Likes / # of Posts / # of Fans * 1000

Relative Economic value shows how much Economic Value each visit from a social network brings to your site by completing your site goals taking into account the number of followers at the account.

Relative Economic value = Per session Goal Value from each Social Network (obtained from Google Analytics) / #Followers * 1000

Terminology

Posts Comments Shares Likes
Twitter # of tweets replies, @username (counted as replies) retweets, RT/CC/via likes
Facebook # of posts comments shares likes
Blog # of posts comments* shares* likes*
YouTube # of videos comments* shares* likes
Linkedin # of updates comments shares* likes*
Tumblr # of blogs notes* reblogs* hearts*
Instagram # of posts comments* embed* hearts*
Slideshare # of presentations comments shares* likes*
Vimeo # of videos comments* shares* likes*
  • additionally collects data from other places besides the channel (e.g., Disqus, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg)