Reporting data with Google Analytics, bitly and Twitter

A full, accurate overview of your site's data using Google Analytics takes 24 hours, meaning you will always be an entire day behind when you review and report data. In contrast, bitly is great for giving you real-time statistics when people click on your link, which is useful for gauging their interest in your content. Unfortunately, you're limited to only this metric.

The combination of GA and bitly becomes advantageous when you plan ahead and strategize campaigns around your content. This doesn't mean you need to create a full-blown campaign rife with Google AdWords, promotional giveaways, or e-mail drip campaigns. It simply means you should think of several key items you want to promote throughout the week, be it on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network. Of course, there will be times when the ebb and flow of your content will become somewhat stagnant, so you should not feel obligated to track every single thing you want to promote 100 percent of the time. Suffice to say, track your tweets or any other link when one or all of the following apply: