UPDATE: According to a Google Analytics webinar on Aug 29, 2012 (at the 25:48 mark), there are roughly 400 social networks. So, even as obscure as some of the networks are in my list are, there are roughly 150 more!
UPDATE: I added 28 more social networks to the list on Feb 11, 2014, after comparing my list with this one published by LunaMetrics, bringing my total to 276 networks.
Rand Fishkin asked this question the other day:
Is there a list of all the domains Google Analytics considers to be "social" in their referrals section?
— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) November 14, 2012
So I started rifling through all of the biggest clients I have access to and compiling a list. I’m sure this list isn’t exhaustive, but it does seem to be pretty comprehensive.
Ilya Grigorik, Developer Advocate at Google, said that Google hasn’t intentionally kept the list secret in this tweet to Rand:
@randfish @TheNextCorner we definitely talked about publishing it – may have just slipped on the todo list.. not a secret list!
— Ilya Grigorik (@igrigorik) November 14, 2012
But until Google releases its list, mine is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. 🙂
The List
Without further adieu, here is an embedded Google Doc with my list. Or you can view it here.
Who’s even heard of half of these sites? O.o
Find Out Which Ones Drive Traffic To Your Site(s)
You can find out which of these sites are driving traffic to your site(s) in GA, and please let me know if you find some I missed by emailing me at annie(at)annielytics.com. I always link in gratitude. 🙂
BTW, to see if you found one I didn’t, first take note how many are on my list. Then just copy my list into Excel, add your networks to the bottom of the list. (Press Ctrl/Command-Down Arrow to jump to the bottom.) Then select the whole column by clicking on the letter at the top, and go to Data > Data Tools > Remove Duplicates (Mac: Data > Tools > Remove Duplicates). If you found some I didn’t, they’ll be at the bottom of the list.
Photo by olarte.ollie.
suzybureau says
Do you know if Google has since revised this list? It appears glassdoor is no longer showing up as a social referral. For a single day in GA, I have a visit from glassdoor, but there are 0 visits showing in the overview within my social section. Anyone else experiencing this?
Thanks for the article!
Annie Cushing says
I only have a couple clients getting any traffic from GlassDoor, but the visits were showing up as social as late as early November. Are you seeing it in Referrals report and not the the Social report?
Suzy Bureau says
Sorry for the ridiculous delay on response here. I am seeing discrepancies between the social section and when I drill down into specific referrals from networks in the “all traffic” section of Traffic Sources. It’s pretty odd!