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If you have Google "+1" and Facebook "Like" buttons on your site, it's important to know which buttons are being clicked and for which content. For example, if you publish articles on your site, you'll want to know which articles are most commonly "liked" or shared, and from which social networks they're being shared (for example, Google+ or Facebook). You can use this information to create more of the type of content that's popular with your visitors. Also, if you find that some buttons are rarely used, you may wish to remove them to reduce clutter.
The Social Engagement reports allow you to see how people shared content on your site via social actions. Examples of social actions on your site that can be tracked include Google +1 button clicks, Facebook "Like" and "Send" interactions, and Del.icio.us bookmarks.

Setting Up Social Plug-in Analytics

No setup is required to track Google +1 interactions that occur on your site. However, to track interactions with non-Google interactions, you will need to modify your tracking code. Learn how to track non-Google social interactions on your site.
For troubleshooting, read Troubleshoot Your +1 Analytics. For customization information, read Customize/Disable Your +1 Analytics.

The Reports

Three reports on the Standard Reporting tab help you analyze the sharing and social activity on your site:

• Audience > Social > Engagement: Compare number of pages viewed per visit, average visit duration, bounce rate, and other metrics for visits that included and did not include social actions. This allows you to determine whether people who used social actions that are available on your site viewed fewer or more pages, for example, than people who did not use use social actions.
  
  For visits that included social actions, you can compare metrics for each social source/action combination. For example, you can compare whether visits that included a +1 button click had a longer average visit duration than visits that included a Facebook Send.
  
• Audience > Social > Action: Compare the number of social actions (+1 clicks, Likes, etc) for each social source and social source-action combination.
  
  For example, you can compare the number of Facebook Like's versus Facebook Send's on your site, or compare the total number of Facebook interactions with the total number of Twitter interactions. This information can give you an idea of which buttons are most important to provide on the site.
  
• Audience > Social > Pages: This report allows you to compare the number of actions on each page of your site. You can see this information by social source or by social source-action combination.
  
  For example, you can see which pages on your site prompted the most Facebook actions, the most Twitter actions, or the most Facebook Like actions. Page is the page on which the social action was taken; Social Entity is the page that was shared (via a "Like", a "+1", etc). This information is useful for understanding which content is most viral and via which social networks and actions.

A Note About Webmaster Tools Reports

If you also use Webmaster Tools reports for your website, keep in mind the following when using both Analytics and Webmaster Tools reports for tracking Google +1 interactions:

• Google Analytics reports include only +1 interactions that occur on your website domain. Webmaster Tools reports on all +1 interactions for your content, regardless of whether the interaction occurs on your own domain, or on a search result listing.
• Google Analytics uses JavaScript to track social interactions, which is a different mechanism than that used by Webmaster Tools.
• Google Analytics data is updated more frequently than the data from Webmaster Tools

For these reasons, the number of +1 interactions reported by these different tools will not always align.

Next Steps

For more information on Social Plug-in Analytics, see the following:

• Troubleshoot Your +1 Analytics Tracking