Spoke with Matthieu, and was asked to add this ticket. It will be related to: #2791

The goal is to add a "social" class/variable based on the custom variable, to allow users to track social actions taken on their site, such as Tweets, Likes and more.

The goal is to allow users to control their Social Media data, rather then handing over the analytics to companies that offer "Sharing tools".

Next Steps:

Tracking Implementation

Create a big function called trackSocial ( ) This function will call setCustomVariable() and then call trackPageview() with name "Social Action". This way we set up to 5 custom vars in a new pageview, so we don't have to overwrite existing custom vars user is using on the page. Maybe we could create a new action type, similar to outlinks and downloads, specifically for social interactions ( might make things simple). The variables of TrackSocial would be the social network used (i.e Twitter), the social intent (pin, share, tweet ect) and the url that was shared.

Reporting/implementation

As mentioned, we can first use the existing Custom Variable feature.
Later, we could at least show the favicon of each known support network (from list of favicons at: #2791)

Maybe we could also show the report under "Actions > Social". This new report would call the custom var API and filter social rows. It provides a "view" of the data. Then we could hide the "Social" rows from the Custom Var talbe (avoid confusion/duplicate). From what was explained to me this is the technique used to track ecommerce views.

Later on the line, we can use a segment to see users that are Social Engaged, vs those that are not. It may be even be added as a goal/conversion to be tracked. Possibly using the incoming social media traffic data a match can be made to outgoing social media traffic.

Next steps

Agree on the needs for V1 and best way to implement.

Resources

Some resources of what others are doing in social:
Google: _gaq.push(network, socialAction, opt_target, opt_pagePath);.

GetClicky only has Twitter integration. It includes sentiment analysis, but I think it's beyond our scope.

Gall was written on Piwik, but since abandoned. It looks great, but I think more than the average user needs.

True Social Metrics based on Avinash spec.

Attached you will find a simple script I cobbled together using the current custom variable, and some major social networks API's/JQuery. The custom variable limitation is evident that 5 custom vars can be used quickly. Also the current set up for custom variables, does not allow space for url shared, without also dropping an important data set.
Keywords: social media, social tracking,