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      How to read the general dashboard of smartocto real time?

      Quick jump:

      Below is the standard dashboard offered by smartocto, providing you with a comprehensive 360-degree view of your data. By aggregating information, you can quickly gain insights that prompt actionable decisions. An example of the dashboard is displayed below.

      Open the dashboard

      A dashboard can only be accessed when you are logged in. Therefore, navigate to your smartocto environment and log in using your personal email address and password. 

      Once you are logged in, you will see a blank page on the right and a navigation menu at the top. To access the dashboard, click on the "Current" button located in the top navigation menu.

      List with consumed stories

      The marked list with stories above displays the most read articles based on view counts, distinguishing between views from the website and the app. This list is organized by the total number of views combined from both platforms, arranged from highest to lowest.

      By making both website and app views visible, we can identify potential opportunities for improvement. For instance, there may be a story that continues to attract traffic on the website but is underperforming in the app due to suboptimal placement or visibility. Adjusting this could be a strategic action based on the statistics: how can we enhance the visibility of these stories, and is it desirable to do so?

      Data period and refresh rate

      The article list provides a snapshot of the past half hour, as indicated at the top of the list. However, this list refreshes every minute, ensuring that you always have the most current information regarding the last 30 minutes*. This time frame shifts with each refresh:

      • At 12:00, the focus shifts to the time period from 11:30 to 12:00.

      • At 12:01, the story list reflects the time period from 11:31 to 12:01.

      * It is possible for the list to cover a different time period, such as the last fifteen minutes. This decision is made strategically by the editorial team. The selected time frame will be displayed at the top of the list.

      Where does the traffic come from?

      Beneath the titles, colored bars are displayed to indicate the sources of traffic. The length of these bars is also significant, as it visually represents the proportion of traffic coming from each source.

      The colors of the bars correspond to different traffic sources listed at the bottom. The length of each bar indicates the proportion of traffic coming from each source. For instance, the top story, the primary source of traffic is labeled as 'Direct: app.' In contrast, for the second story from top, Search is identified as the largest traffic driver.

      The displayed traffic sources are those that you have influence over or that are relevant to the editorial team. Not all sources, such as local blogs or larger referring websites, are shown. Any sources that are not displayed fall under the category labeled "Other."

      Relative length of the colored bars

      The overall length of the colored bars is also significant. The top story displays the colored bars spanning the entire width from the orange indicator to the right edge, signifying that it is the largest story, occupying 100% of the width:

      In contrast, the bottom story's colored bars stop at the midpoint of the line, indicating that it receives approximately 30% of the article views compared to the top story. This visual representation allows us to assess the relative size of the stories without needing to sum up numerical values.

      Icons in the Story List

      In the story list, the titles of the most-read articles are accompanied by icons that indicate the channels through which the story has been shared. It is important to note that these icons reflect only the actions taken by the editorial team; they do not activate if the channel has been used by third parties, such as when a random visitor shares a story on their Facebook page.

       

      Initially, these icons appear gray (inactive), but they will turn white once a channel has been utilized. For example, the "homepage" and "Facebook" icons will glow white if those channels have been used by the editorial team.

      The various icons are explained as follows:

      Homepage icon

      This icon turns green when the story has appeared on the homepage. It remains green even if the story is no longer featured, indicating that the "homepage" channel was utilized.

      Facebook icon

      This icon lights up when a story is posted on one or more LinkedIn company pages, provided that the Facebook pages are linked to smartocto. There is no distinction made between general pages and specific Facebook pages, such as those dedicated to sports.

      Twitter icon

      This icon illuminates if the story has been shared on one or more Twitter channels, and the necessary information is accessible.

      LinkedIn icon

      This icon lights up when the story is shared on one or more LinkedIn company pages, given that the LinkedIn pages are connected to smartocto.

      Newsletter icon

      This icon activates if the story is included in one or more newsletters. A story may appear in multiple newsletters, and each newsletter will be listed separately on the article page.

      Push icon

      This icon indicates that the story has been pushed one or more times.

      External Referral icon

      This icon lights up if a story has received traffic from one or more external sources. It is useful to investigate which websites are writing about the story and consider potential follow-up actions.

      Timing

      The story list includes a timestamp:

      This timestamp indicates the age of the article, rounded to the nearest hour and day.

      The dashboard displays the article's age to provide context that can aid in decision-making.

      For example, if a story is nearly a day old and is still receiving views on the website, it may raise a question: is this noteworthy considering its age, and what logical action should be taken? What steps will you take in response?

      Trend indicator

      The dashboards in smartocto feature an green upward arrow and a red downward arrow, which indicate the current trend.

       

      To display the trend indicators, we analyze the total view counts from both the website and the app. The performance over the last 10 minutes is compared to a similar preceding period. If the data being displayed covers the last 30 minutes, it will be compared to the 30 minutes prior. Similarly, if the list shows information from the past 6 hours, it will be compared against the previous 6 hours.

      The chart in the dashboard

      The graph in the smartocto dashboard not only displays the progress throughout the day but also provides context by comparing the data with previous days.

       

      The highlighted section displays the progress throughout the day, illustrating visitor behavior by tracking article views on both the website and the app. Key peak times are evident, occurring in the morning from 8:00 to 10:00, around lunchtime, and in the evening.

      The yellow line represents traffic to the website, while the orange line indicates reading activity via the app. The app line may frequently spike, particularly when a push notification is sent. Consequently, the dark line, which aggregates data from both platforms, will also rise, providing a comprehensive view of total engagement across the web and app.

      Average day or not

      When the dark blue line falls within the middle of the gray area, it indicates a typical day. The gray area represents the average performance for the day you are viewing on the dashboard. For instance, if you check the dashboard on a Wednesday, the gray area reflects the average user behavior observed on Wednesdays over the past eight weeks.

      If the dark line is positioned at or above the top of the gray area, it indicates that traffic is above average at that moment, signaling a need to focus on retaining those visitors.

      Views last 30 minutes

      The "Views last 30 minutes" section, located in the bottom right corner, displays the total number of page views. This figure is not limited to the list of stories shown on the left; it encompasses all tracked pages across the platform.

      Active users

      The number displayed under "Active users" indicates how many visitors have viewed your brand's content within the last 30 minutes.

      Each app user counts as one visitor. If a single individual accesses the app on both a mobile device and a tablet, this will reflect as two separate users in the data. For website usage statistics, each browser session is counted as one visitor. Even if cookies are cleared, the same browser will be recognized as a new user.

      Resources for data

      The dashboard utilizes multiple data sources, all centered around the stories. These sources include:

      • Website article views (tracked by smartocto or data or 3rd party tracking)

        Article views in the app (tracked by smartoctoor data or 3rd party tracking)

        Number of active users (tracked by smartoctoor data or 3rd party tracking)

        Metadata for articles, such as the publication time and title, is sent from article pages to smartocto

        Engagement channels, including the homepage, Facebook, and newsletters, are monitored by smartocto

        Social actions are sourced from Facebook and LinkedIn

      Open a story

      From the dashboard, you can access any story by clicking on its title in the story list, marked below in the image. This action will open the selected story within the smartocto environment in a new tab, allowing for seamless navigation and exploration of the content.

      A story can also be accessed from the list of engaged stories. Once on the story page, you can click through to linked social media posts for further exploration.

      Show dashboard in TV Mode

      If you would like to display a dashboard in full-screen mode, simply click the button located in the upper right corner of the screen.