Data Collection Per Platform
Vantage collects Publications and Asset profile data from eight platforms: Website, YouTube, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and LinkedIn. This page lists, per platform, the fields captured, the metrics available, how often collection runs, and what is out of scope.
All data comes from official platform APIs or licensed data providers. Fields and metrics differ by platform because the platforms expose different data. Where a metric is missing for a platform, Vantage shows an empty cell.
Platform coverage
Platform | Venue type | What a Publication is | What an Asset is | Comment text collected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Website | Website; Media Outlet | Article | Domain | No |
YouTube | Platform | Video, including Shorts | Channel | Yes |
Telegram | Platform | Message in a channel or public chat | Channel or chat | Yes |
Platform | Post | Page, group or profile | Yes | |
Platform | Post or Reel | Account | Yes | |
X | Platform | Post, repost or quote | Account | Yes |
TikTok | Platform | Video | Account | Yes |
Platform | Post | Page or profile | Yes |
Comments are collected as text and are analysed alongside the Publication they belong to.
Collected on every platform
Every Publication and every Asset carries the fields below, whatever the platform. The per-platform tables that follow list only what each platform adds.
Every Publication
- Posting date and time: as reported by the platform, stored in UTC
- Text: main body of the Publication; for video, the title, description and transcript where available
- URLs: every link contained in the Publication
- Hashtags: every hashtag in the text
- Media attachments: images and video attached to the Publication, where the platform exposes them
- Link to the original: direct URL of the Publication on the platform
Every Asset
- Name and identifier: display name plus the platform username, ID or domain
- Profile URL: direct URL of the Asset on the platform
- Country: the country whose Information Landscape the Asset belongs to
Per-platform fields
Fields each platform adds on top of the common set. Metrics are listed separately in the next section.
Platform | Publication fields | Asset fields |
|---|---|---|
Website | Article title; article body | Domain; audience estimate from SemRush (global and per-country), refreshed monthly |
YouTube | Video title; description; transcript; auto-description for Shorts | Channel ID |
Telegram | Message text; forwarded-from source where the message is a forward | Channel or chat username; public or private status |
Post text; share and reply relationship to other posts | Username; verification label; bio; connected URLs | |
Caption; tagged users; auto-description for Reels | Username; verification label; connected URLs | |
X | Post text; tagged users; quoted post; repost source | Username; bio; connected URLs |
TikTok | Description; transcript; auto-description | Username; verification label; bio; connected URLs |
Post text; tagged members or companies | Page or member URL; headline; location; connected website |
LinkedIn fields are proposed and await engineering confirmation. The Telegram row is assembled from the collection method rather than from a field list and also needs confirmation.
Metrics by platform
Vantage collects two kinds of metrics: per Publication (how one post performed) and per Asset (the size of the account). Engagement in Vantage is the sum of reactions, comments and shares; Views are a separate metric and exist only where the platform reports them.
Platform | Views | Reactions or likes | Comments | Shares, reposts or forwards | Per-Asset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Website | No | No | No | No | Audience estimate (SemRush), monthly |
YouTube | Yes | Likes | Yes | No | Subscribers; total views; video count |
Telegram | Yes | Reactions | Yes | Forwards | Subscribers or members |
Video views only | Reactions | Yes | Shares | Followers or members; total likes | |
Video views only | Likes | Yes | No | Followers; following; post count | |
X | Yes | Likes | Replies | Reposts | Followers; following; post count; total likes |
TikTok | Yes | Likes | Yes | Shares | Followers; following; total likes; post count |
No | Reactions | Yes | Reposts | Followers |
Metrics are captured at collection time and refreshed on later collection runs. Engagement on a fresh Publication keeps changing for about 48 hours after posting, so the most recent figures in Vantage may still move. Websites carry no per-Publication metrics; the monthly audience estimate is the only measure of reach for a domain.
Video and image processing
Video content is turned into text so that it can be analysed with the same methods as written Publications.
Transcript
Applies to: YouTube videos; TikTok videos
What it produces: The spoken text, taken from the platform's captions where the author has enabled them
Auto-description
Applies to: All short-form video: TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts
What it produces: A written description of the video generated frame by frame, including on-screen text read by optical character recognition (OCR)
A transcript depends on captions being available on the platform. Auto-description runs regardless of captions, so every short-form video has at least a description. Age-restricted YouTube videos cannot be processed and are stored with their title and description only.
Collection cadence and latency
To be detailed
The delay covers the gap between two collection runs plus processing. A Publication posted just after a run waits for the next one; a Publication posted just before a run appears within the processing time alone. Per-Asset metrics such as follower counts are refreshed once a day on all platforms.
What Vantage does not collect
- Private or closed channels, groups and accounts. Collection covers public content only.
- Personal characteristics of individuals. Vantage records no inferred age, gender.
- Age-restricted YouTube video content. The title and description are stored; the video itself is not processed.
- Content that a platform restricts by region may be unavailable for the affected Assets.