Data acquired from social media and acquisition timing

This page describes SocialDog's data acquisition methods from various social media platforms and the timing of data retrieval based on feature and platform type.

Common to All Social Media Platforms

Data Acquisition Method

SocialDog acquires data from the official APIs of each social media platform (e.g., X (Twitter) API, Instagram Graph API). We do not use methods prohibited by the terms of service of each social media platform, such as scraping.

Data Acquisition Timing

SocialDog servers acquire data from social media platforms at one or more of the following timings. The timing varies depending on the feature, data, and social media platform type.

• Scheduled Acquisition
  • Only available for paid plans or Free plans when logged in within the last 14 days.
  • Timing varies by user and day, and cannot be specified.
• When opening SocialDog's screen
• When clicking the [Refresh] button on SocialDog's screen
• Immediately after new SocialDog registration
• Immediately after changing to a SocialDog paid plan

Interruption of Daily Acquisition for Free Plan

Logging in again will resume data acquisition, but data from the period of suspension will not be retrieved. We recommend logging into SocialDog regularly.

Data Display Immediately After SocialDog Registration

Immediately after SocialDog registration, information will not be displayed on the dashboard or elsewhere until data acquisition is complete.

Acquisition of historical data may take up to one day. New data after registration will be reflected at the next data acquisition timing.

Discrepancies in Data Display Between SocialDog and Social Media Platforms

Due to the following reasons, data displayed in SocialDog may differ from the data displayed on the social media platform itself (e.g., X Analytics, Meta Business Suite).

• Acquisition Timing
  • Due to the frequency of data acquisition for each data point, the figures displayed in SocialDog may not be the most current.
• Number of Posts Acquired
  • There is a limit to the number of posts SocialDog can acquire.
• Data Updates for Acquired Posts
  • The scope of data that can be updated is limited by the number of recent posts and the number of days since posting.
• Social Media Platform-Side Issues
  • Data provided by each social media platform via API may differ from the data displayed on the social media platform itself.

Handling of Data Acquired from Social Media Platforms

SocialDog complies with the developer rules set by each social media platform. Therefore, information that is viewable only by specific users on the social media platform (e.g., analytical metrics viewable only by the user) is accessible only to that user and will not be disclosed to other users.

X (Twitter)

Users

Target Data

• User information (follower count, following count, bio, etc.)
• Daily historical data of user information

Acquisition Timing

• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 9:00 AM JST)
• Immediately after SocialDog registration
  • Data will be acquired if SocialDog possesses data from before registration.
    • If the user had a follow relationship with a SocialDog user, SocialDog may possess data from before their registration.

Posts

Target Data

• Post data
  • Post content, latest metrics for each post (e.g., impressions, likes)
• Time-series data for post metrics

Acquisition Timing

• Immediately after SocialDog registration
  • Acquires the latest 3,200 posts and their metrics.
• Immediately after changing to a paid plan
  • Acquires the latest 3,200 posts and their metrics (lifetime values).
  • Acquires hourly metric trends for the latest 100 posts from the past 4 weeks (Business and Enterprise plans only).
• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 9:00 AM JST)
• When opening SocialDog
  • If more than 3 hours have passed since the last data acquisition:
    • Automatic acquisition of posts created since the last data retrieval (including posts created without using SocialDog).
    • Updates analytical data for posts created within the last 10 days (Personal/Professional plans) or 30 days (Business/Enterprise plans).
  • When a period exceeding two weeks is specified on the post performance screen:
    • Additional data for that period will be acquired.
• When clicking the [Refresh] button on SocialDog's screen

Maximum Number of Posts That Can Be Acquired

• If the number of posts acquired in the current month reaches the plan's limit, automatic acquisition of posts created without using SocialDog will be suspended until the following month (posts from the suspension period will not be acquired even after the following month).
  • Plan-specific limits:
    • Free, Personal, Professional: 3,000 posts
    • Business, Enterprise: 12,500 posts
  • Posts made via SocialDog will continue to be automatically acquired, regardless of the acquired post count.
• If the number of newly created posts since the last acquisition exceeds 3,200, data gaps may occur (Business and Enterprise plans only).

Follows/Followers

Target Data

• List of users who follow/are followed, and their respective profile information
  • Includes follows performed outside SocialDog.
• Historical data of follows/followers
  • Includes follows performed outside SocialDog.
  • If a follow and unfollow occur between data acquisition timings (e.g., unfollowing immediately after following), they will not be recorded in the follow history.
    • Manually updating the "Follows/Followers list" before and after follow operations can help ensure accurate information is recorded in SocialDog's follow history.

Acquisition Timing

• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 9:00 AM JST)
• When opening SocialDog
  • When the "Followers" screen is displayed and more than 1 hour has passed since the last data acquisition.
• When clicking the [Refresh] button on SocialDog's screen
  • On the "Followers" screen, you can manually update data by clicking the 'Last Updated' timestamp display (e.g., '15 minutes ago') in the upper right corner of the screen, and then clicking the '[Update Now]' button.

Competitor Account Posts

Target Data

• Competitor account posts
  • Acquires up to 1,000 posts for the current month. If the number of acquired posts per month reaches 1,000, the acquisition of new posts for that month will cease. Post acquisition will resume on the 1st of the following month or later, but posts not acquired in the previous month will not be retroactively retrieved.

Acquisition Timing

• When a competitor account is added
  • Acquires up to 1,000 past posts.
• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 9:00 AM JST)

Instagram

Users

Target Data

• Daily follower count, following count, impressions, likes, profile views, etc.

Acquisition Timing

• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 5:00 PM JST)
  • Due to Instagram's specifications, data available for "new followers" and "unfollows" is limited to the past 3 to 4 days.

Posts

Target Data

• Individual post impressions, likes, etc. (engagement)

Acquisition Timing

• Immediately after SocialDog registration
  • Acquires the latest 1,000 posts from the past 2 years (730 days).
• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 5:00 PM JST)
  • Acquires the latest 1,000 posts.
• Once every 15 minutes scheduled acquisition
  • For Business plans and above, acquires data for the latest 100 posts within the past month.

Online Follower Metrics

Target Data

• Average online followers by time of day, etc.

Acquisition Timing

• Acquired once daily, considering the period from 5:00 PM JST to 4:59 PM JST the following day as one day.
  • Due to Instagram's specifications, data available is limited to the past 2 to 3 days.

Impact of Daylight Saving Time in Pacific Time (PT)

Due to Instagram's specifications, during Daylight Saving Time in Pacific Time (PT) (approximately March to November), data acquisition timing will be one hour earlier than usual.

Additionally, when Daylight Saving Time shifts, the displayed number of online followers may appear extremely low.

Competitor Account Posts

Target Data

Competitor account posts

Acquisition Timing

• Once daily scheduled acquisition (once every 24 hours starting from 5:00 PM JST)
  • Acquires the latest 1,000 posts for each competitor account.