There are several tools that can be used to gather data from your community: CC analytics tool, Google Analytics, Omniture, Coosto, Tracebuzz, Buzzcapture, and many more.
These tools can also be used to compare your community data to your other social channels and website. This document focuses on the process of how to create a report based on the CC analytics tooling and gives a brief description of data that can be derived from Google Analytics. If you work with other tooling, please consult your Community Consultant.
CC analytics tool
The CC analytics tool can be found in your control environment in the navigation on the left side of the page. On the Export page you’ll find a variety of downloadable exports. It is possible to get reports of the activity by exporting report files of a specific timeframe. There are 7 different exports:
- Post
- Topic
- Private messages
- User
- Moderator action
- Login
- Mark as answer
NAME | DESCRIPTION | ANALYSIS EXAMPLES |
Post export | This export provides a list of all posts. A post is either a topic or a comment. |
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Topic export | Offers a list of all topics created. |
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Private message export | The private messages export provides an overview of all two way messages communication, but not the content from the conversation itself. |
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User export | Gives an overview of all user information from participants who have registered in this time range, including the amount of topics, comments, answers given, likes received and all filled in profile fields per user. |
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Moderator actions export | The moderator actions export provides a list of all moderator activities on the platform. |
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Login export | The login export provides a list of all users who have logged in, within this specific time range. |
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Mark as answer export | The mark as answer export provides an overview of all topics that were marked as having an answer by either the moderator, a super user or the topic author. |
Note on Variability Between Dashboard and Export Metrics
Due to the nature of data handling in the system, there can be apparent discrepancies between the metrics observed in Dashboards and data obtained through Exports. The underlying reason for this difference lies in how and when data is updated and retrieved in each system.
Dashboards depend on a batch data update process. Every three hours, the system takes new data and dumps it into the Analytics database. This database is what the Dashboards query whenever data requests are made through the UI. Therefore, between these batch updates, the Dashboard will present data as it was at the last update, potentially omitting more recent activity.
Data Exports, on the other hand, pull real-time data whenever an export request is initiated through the UI. This means that data exports reflect the most current data available in the database at the time of the request, unlike the dashboard, which may show slightly older data.
Example Scenario: Let's say the data dump to the analytics database occurs at 12:00 AM UTC, with the next update scheduled for 3:00 AM UTC.
- Export at 12:30 AM UTC: At this time, the Dashboards will still show the data as of 12:00 AM UTC. However, the export output will include data captured between 12:00 AM and 12:30 AM UTC.
- Export at 1:00 AM UTC: Similarly, the Dashboards will remain unchanged, still showing data from 12:00 AM. However, your export would include data from the new timeframe, 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM UTC.
This methodology means that metrics between the Dashboards and the Exports won’t align exactly unless there is no activity in the community during the dump intervals. Understanding this time-bound difference is essential for properly interpreting the data from each source.