What do the metrics mean? 

NewsWhip tracks the world’s media - discovering new articles and posts within minutes of publication. We then measure the number of social interactions each web article and post generates in close to real-time. 

We use this information to calculate the Total Interactions, Predicted Interactions, Velocity, and Overperforming score for each article. In this article, we’ll explain each of these metrics and when to use them. 

Total interactions

Total Interactions is the total number of social interactions on an article or post. It is available for  four of our networks, and has a slightly different definition for each, depending on the data available. This metric is useful when you want to identify the articles or posts that generated the highest level of social interest. 

1. Web

For web articles, total interactions is the number of likes, shares, and comments an article receives on Facebook, Twitter influencer shares (see below for definition), and the number of Pinterest pins it receives.

2. Facebook 

For Facebook posts, total interactions is the total number of likes, shares, comments, and reactions that a Facebook post receives.

3. Twitter

For Twitter posts, total interactions is the total number of likes and retweets that a tweet receives.

4. Instagram 

For Instagram, total interactions is the total number of likes and comments that a post receives.

Predicted interactions 

Predicted Interactions forecasts the total number of social media interactions that a post or articles will receive when it is double its current age, up to 24 hours into the future. 

Predicted Interactions works by measuring social interactions on each article at regular intervals to create a time-series of interaction values. We apply a predictive analytics technique to this time-series to predict the interaction that each article will have at a given time in the future. 

The longer we track a story, the further into the future we can predict with accuracy. We also revise our prediction every time we collect a new datapoint for an article, to ensure that we make use of the best available information at the time and maintain the accuracy of prediction.

The Predicted Interactions metric is perfect for spotting trending articles and Facebook posts, validating their popularity, and using them to maximize your own content opportunities or through mitigating the risk of emerging negative stories.

Highest velocity

Highest Velocity checks the rate at which an article or post gets new interactions at regular intervals. Highest Velocity is the highest speed at which the article or post gained new interactions at any point in its lifetime.

Highest Velocity will quickly show you the fastest growing articles and Facebook posts in terms of public interest. This is perfect for finding the most viral content at any point in time.

Overperforming

Overperforming tells you how much more interest each article or post is getting compared to the average for that publisher or page. This can be used to find standout stories that are performing significantly better than we’d expect from our measurement of that publisher.

Every publisher has an average level of interaction they get for their articles. Every social media page has an average number of interactions they get for their posts. Overperforming articles and posts are the ones that are higher than average for that publisher.

This metric is represented as a multiplier, so an article with 300 total interactions from a publisher who gets an average of 100 interactions per article, would have an overperforming score of 3x.

The average level of interaction for a publisher or page is calculated using the last 30 days of interaction data from the current date.

Most recent

You can also sort your feeds by Most Recent to monitor new articles and posts as soon as they’re published. 

Native metrics 

The networks themselves also have specific metrics associated with them, which we will outline below.

1. Web

For web articles, you can sort articles by their number of Facebook interactions, 

• Facebook interactions
  Facebook interactions is the sum of likes, shares, and comments that an article receives. 
• Twitter influencer shares 
  Twitter influencer shares is the sum of the number of tweets from NewsWhip’s database of Twitter influencers that share an article, plus the number of retweets that those tweets receive. 
• Pinterest pins
  Pinterest pins is the total number of times an article has been pinned on Pinterest.

2. Facebook

Facebook can be sorted by likes, shares, comments, and reactions. Reactions consist of the reaction buttons available on Facebook 

3. Twitter

Native Twitter posts can be sorted by likes and retweets. 

4. Reddit 

Reddit posts can be sorted by their Score or the total number of comments. The Score is calculated by the net upvotes minus downvotes for the post.

5. Instagram 

Instagram can be sorted by the number of likes or comments that a post or reel receives.

6. YouTube

YouTube can be sorted by the number of views, likes, or comments that a video receives.