Day attribution and Post attribution describe the way metrics are used in social media analytics to understand the impact and effectiveness of content over time.
Here’s how they are defined:
Day attribution ⇒ It refers to the process of attributing specific actions or engagement metrics to the day on which they occurred. For example, if a user likes, shares, or comments on a post on a particular day, that engagement is attributed to that specific day. Day attribution helps marketers understand the daily fluctuations in engagement (and other metrics) and identify trends or patterns over time.
Post attribution ⇒ It refers to the process of attributing specific actions or engagement metrics to that individual post that generated them. For example, if a post receives likes, comments, or shares over 3 days, those engagements are attributed to that post (on the day it was published) and not over those 3 days.
Here’s an actual example from the Socialinsider dashboard:
This is a line chart for Engagement Distribution. I chose the Facebook page of MUBI for the month of April 2024.
When I hover over the chart, I can see all the engagement values for the published posts. On the 24th of April, MUBI gained an engagement of 3893. That’s the engagement on the posts published on that specific day — the 24th of April 2024.
If I want to go more in-depth, I just have to click on the chart (on the 24th) to see the published posts. There are 3 posts, each with a different engagement number.
However, the sum of engagements is 3893.
Post 1: 2168 engagement
Post 2: 1654 engagement
Post 3: 71 engagement
The sum of these engagements is:
2168 + 1654 + 71 = 3893 total engagement (for the day of 24th April 2024)
Chances are not all reactions, comments, and shares were received on that day. You can publish the post today and receive reactions for an entire week. But those reactions are all attributed to the day the post was published, just like it happens in the MUBI example — and that is post attribution.
The dashboard's tooltips explain all the metrics and charts that may be influenced by day and post attribution.
In summary, day attribution focuses on the timing of engagements, attributing them to specific days, while post attribution focuses on attributing engagements to the individual posts that generated them.
Both metrics are valuable for analyzing social media performance and optimizing content strategies.