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TRAC: General Listening - Overview -Snapshot
TRAC: General Listening - Overview -Snapshot

Learn how to use the Snapshot Overview page within TRAC to get a quick snapshot of important metrics within your searches.

Updated over a month ago

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand the function of the Snapshot Overview page in TRAC.

  • Learn how the Snapshot Overview page presents sentiment, emotions, and credibility.

  • Learn how as a researcher or marketer you can use the Snapshot Overview page to evaluate the overall performance in your search.


What is the Snapshot Overview?

As the name suggests, the Snapshot Overview page on TRAC gives you a detailed summary of all the key insights into your search. This page helps you quickly understand what's trending, what the overall tone of the conversation is, who is driving the conversation, and where the conversation is taking place, be it online or geographically.


Key Performance Metrics

The first visual you see on the Snapshot page is the "Key Performance Metrics". This chart is important in helping you understand some of the most important metrics that sum up the topic you're analysing. The metrics are ordered differently depending on the use case you're viewing.

Total Volume

This is a measure of the total volume of data collected by your search across various platforms. The Volume sums up original content plus any engagements, which can be reposts, comments and replies. Volume is important as it gives you a sense of the scale of the conversation.

Velocity per Hour

The "Velocity Per Hour" is the speed at which content is collected in a search. In this chart this metric is calculated per hour, in the selected time frame.

Average Visibility

"Average Visibility" measures the impact of a piece of content. Our algorithm takes into account the type of content, the size of the audience of the author, and the number of people who engage with the content. In this chart, the Visibilty metric is presented as an average of all the content that has been over the selected time frame.

Social Impressions

"Social Impressions" are the number of times a post has been displayed in a timeline, also refereed to as eyeballs, and this is whether the post is clicked on, or not. In this chart, this metric is the total sum of all the content impressions generated in the selected time frame.

Media Reach

The "Media Reach" metric comes from Similar Web's unique monthly visits. In this chart, this metric is the total sum of the media reach of all the sites and outlets in the selected time frame.

Media Impressions

The "Media Impressions" metric comes from Similar web's total monthly visits. In this chart, this metric is the total sum of the media impressions of all the sites and outlets in the selected time frame. Compare this with Media Reach to determine repeat visitors.

Social Shares

"Social Shares" are the number of times that an online news article, blog or review has been shared on Facebook. In this chart, this metric is the total sum of the social shares generated by all the articles in the selected time frame. This metric can help you track the engagement of your brand's mentions and identify any viral content.

Total AVE

"Total AVE" takes into account the media reach of an online or broadcast outlet x a multiplier to help normalise the AVE to a standardised value. In this chart, this metric is the total sum of the AVE generated by all the content in the selected time frame.


Content Over Time

The "Content Over Time" chart lets you view how the conversation has changed over a specific period. You can toggle this chart to display alternate metrics and understand changes over time in Volume, Visibility, Media Reach, Media Impressions and AVE. The visual displays peaks and troughs that highlight the significant moments and lulls in the online conversation you're tracking. By analysing the peaks and troughs, you can gain insights into what aspects of the conversation are generating the most engagement and when interest may be waning. This is an effective way to monitor changes in topics or themes that emerge over time, helping you to understand how the conversation is evolving and providing you with valuable information.


You can adjust your content over time chart to see changes in Volume, Media Reach, Social Impressions, Visibility, AVE and Media Impressions over time.

πŸ’‘ Top Tip: You can hover over the bubbles, which represent the top posts within your dataset.

  • The colour of the bubbles represent the channel that they've come from.

  • The size of the bubble represents the number of engagements that the piece of content has received.


Nature of Conversation

The "Nature of Conversation" chart allows you to gain a deeper insight into the tone of the conversation beyond volume. It dissects the discussion into Emotion, Sentiment, and Credibility analysis, providing a more profound understanding of the conversation.

  1. Emotions: The emotions dial uses our emotion analysis capabilities to help you gauge which emotions (joy, anger, sadness, disgust, and fear) are the most prevalent within your dataset.
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  2. Sentiment Average: Visualise the average sentiment score to gauge whether the average sentiment of the media coverage in your dataset is Positive, Negative, or Neutral. The Sentiment Average is calculated as follows: (% of positive minus % of negative)/2. The percentages of positives, negatives, and neutrals are computed by taking the three totals and then converting them to percentages.
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  3. Credibility: The Credibility dial helps you understand the overall credibility of the media coverage in your search and see if any potential misinformation is spreading through your content.


Top Data Sources

The Top Data Sources chart illustrates the distribution of data sources from where your search is collecting data. The size of each stream represents the proportion of content coming from the data source over a specified time range. You can analyze the split based on various metrics: Volume, Visibility, Social Impressions, Media Reach, Media Impressions, and AVE.


Top Content

This chart allows you to identify and explore the top content in the conversation. You can use this visual to understand which content resonates with your audience, which is getting the highest engagement and what content is having the greatest impact.

When toggled by Engagements, this chart displays the top content ranked by content with the highest engagements. Engagements can be reposts, social shares, comments and replies.
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When toggled by Likes, this chart displays the top content ranked by content with the highest number of likes.
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When toggled by Visibility, this chart displays the top content ranked by content with the highest visibility score. Visibility measures the impact of a piece of content. Our algorithm takes into account the type of post, the source of the post, the size of the audience of the person posting that content, and the number of people who engage with the post.
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When toggled by Social Impressions, this chart displays the top content ranked by content with the highest number of social impressions. Social Impressions are the number of times a post has been displayed in a timeline, whether the post is clicked or not, calculated by summing up total no. of followers + total engagements + total shares.
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When toggled by Media Reach, this chart displays the top content ranked by content published on outlets with the highest media reach. Media reach is derived from Similar web's unique monthly visits.
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When toggled by Media Impressions, this chart displays the top content ranked by content published on outlets with the highest media impressions. Media impressions are derived from Similar web's total monthly visits.
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When toggled by AVE, this chart displays the top content in the selected time frame, grouped by posts with the highest AVE. AVE (Ad Value Equivalency) is an estimated Dollar ($) value indication helping you to understand the estimated return on investment attributed to a media item.

πŸ’‘ Top Tip: You can filter the top content within your search by different metrics, such as Engagements, Likes, Media Reach, Social Impressions, Media Impressions, Visibility and AVE.

This way, you can identify the top content based on the metric that is most pertinent to your needs. This can help you in developing effective content strategies, recognising influential media outlets, and tracking the impact of media campaigns.


Trending in this Search

"Trending in this Search" presents a ist of the latest trending topics, individuals, and organisations in your search. This is done through our Topic and Entities analysis.

By exploring this information, you can gain a deeper understanding of the most significant aspects of your topic. This can assist you in identifying emerging trends, key players, and critical issues related to your search topic.


Most Active Time & Day of the Week

This heat map displays the peak periods when your audience is most active or visible. This can help you in determining the ideal time to engage with your audience or post content to maximise engagement and impact.

Volume: When toggled by volume, this chart displays the time and day of the week when the audience of this topic is most active. The darker the tile, the more conversations there are during that time and day of the week.
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​Visibility: When toggled by visibility, this chart displays the time and day of the week when this topic is most visible. The darker the tile, the greater the impact there is during that time and day of the week.
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​Social Impressions: When toggled by social impressions, this chart displays the time and day of the week when the audience of this topic generates the most social impressions. The darker the tile, the more social impressions there are during that time and day of the week.
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​Media Reach: When toggled by media reach, this chart displays the time and day of the week when this topic is covered by outlets with the greatest media reach. The darker the tile, the greater the media reach there is during that time and day of the week.
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​Media Impressions: When toggled by media impressions, this chart displays the time and day of the week when this topic is covered by outlets with the highest media impressions. The darker the tile, the greater the number of media impressions generated during that time and day of the week.
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​AVE: When toggled by AVE, this chart displays the time and day of the week when this topic is covered by outlets that generate the highest AVE. The darker the tile, the higher the AVE that's likely to be generated during that time and day of the week.
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Most Shared Videos & Articles

"Most Shared Videos & Articles" refers to the links that have been shared the most within your dataset, including news articles and videos. These are the links that have garnered the highest number of shares and can be indicative of the most popular and widely circulated content related to your search.

When toggled by Volume, this chart displays the links or articles that people frequently share when discussing this topic.
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When toggled by Credibility, this chart displays the links or articles that are being shared by people discussing this topic and whether that shared content is from credible or non-credible outlets. Credibility is provided by NewsGuard, whose rating uses nine basic, apolitical criteria of journalistic practice, giving the site a score out of 100. These criteria measure the site on credibility and transparency. Based on the nine criteria, each site gets an overall rating. Credible, non-credible, satirical and user generated.


Active Audience Demographics

"Active Audience Demographics" offers a breakdown of the authors contributing to the conversation. It analyses various factors such as gender, language, geographical location, and interests based on their bios. By understanding the demographic breakdown of your authors, you can gain valuable insights into your audience, which can be useful in developing content that resonates with them.


Influential Voices

"Influential Voices" focuses on the people who are leading the online conversation that you're analysing. You have the flexibility to switch between different metrics such as volume, media reach, social impressions, media impressions, and visibility to gain insights into the most influential people. By studying these influential voices, you can identify key players and trends in your industry.

Volume: This table shows the most influential people in the conversation based on the volume of content they generate.
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​Visibility: This table shows the most influential people in the conversation based on the visibility of their content.
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​Social Impressions: This table shows the most influential people in the conversation whose content generates the highest social impressions.
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​Media Reach: This table shows the most influential people in the conversation whose content generates the highest media reach, based on the media reach of the outlets where they publish their content.
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​Media Impressions: This table shows the most influential people in the conversation whose content generates the highest media impressions, based on the media impressions of the outlets where they publish their content.
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Top Sites & Outlets

"Top Sites & Outlets" allows you to explore the top online channels and news outlets within the conversation you're tracking. By studying this table, you can gain insights into the sources of information and the impact of various publications and social channels on the conversation. This can help you to identify the most influential sources of information related to your topic.

You can switch the view and identify top sites and outlets based on metrics; Volume, Media Reach, Social Impressions, Visibility, AVE, Credibility, and Media Impressions.

When toggled by Volume, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites with the highest volume of content.
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When toggled by Visibility, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites with the highest visibility.
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When toggled by Social Impressions, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites that generate the highest social impressions.
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When toggled by Media Reach, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites with the highest media reach.
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When toggled by Media Impressions, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites that generate the highest media impressions.
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When toggled by AVE, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites that generate the highest AVE.
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When toggled by Credibility, this table lists the top websites and media outlets where your content is coming from, ranked by sites with the highest credibility.


Country Breakdown

This map shows the geographical location of the people contributing to the conversation. The map is broken down by country and in some instances, by state as well. The shading of each country (or state), represents the overall sentiment about the topic, in that location. The darker the shading, the stronger the sentiment. For example, a darker red represents very strong negativity.


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