The impact of Google +1 can now be tracked in both Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics with special reports and plugins to monitor activity, engagement and impact.
Webmaster Tools now has a +1 metrics section with three new reports in the left sidebar: Search Impact, Activity and Audience.
– Search Impact: This report displays a count of the number of +1 impressions for each individual page then displays a CTR of impressions with and without +1
– Activity: This report measures both new and aggregate +1 activity for individual URLs and +1s from your site and other sites.
– Audience: This area shows the number of unique visitors that have +1’d content on your site
This is just the first component as you can measure the +1 in even more detail with the new version of Google Analytics and their social analytics tracking. You have to have the tracking configured in addition to your regular tracking code, but it allows you to gain more insight into how visitors interact with your site. Google Analytics allows you to track the following:
– Social Engagement: Monitor visitor behavior of users that have interacted with your content
– Social Actions: Counts the number of tweets, +1’s, Facebook Likes, etc.
– Social Pages: Allows you to see what pages on your site are generating the most social actions. This is especially helpful in finding what content connects with an audience