Item: Chartbeat
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Chartbeat is used in the news division to understand what stories are performing well and to understand where our traffic is coming from.

Pros and Cons

I program the homepage, so I use the heads-up display to learn quickly which stories are hits with readers.
Spike alert notifications do the same as the above, with a wider range of traffic sources.
The Chartbeat real-time display includes lots of information in easy-to-understand graphic form.

Some referrer information is vague. For instance, I don't know what "deep links, push alerts" means on stories for which we have not created push alerts.
Chartbeat calculates page views in a way that's different from Google Analytics, so Chartbeat is less helpful for deeper analysis of story performance.

Real-Time Data

When I see stories are getting clicks, I can move them to places on the homepage or our other platforms so that they can be seen by more readers.

I'd give it a 10, but I've had to explain to colleagues who are new (or even not new) to Chartbeat how to work their way around the dashboard. Small things, usually involving an accidental change to a different section or workspace.

Content Optimization

Chartbeat allows us to see in real time if a story is performing well on one platform but not on another and to adjust where needed--improve placement on the homepage, schedule a post on social platforms, improve the SEO headline, etc.