What should utm_medium be for social posts?

social. GA4 counts social, social-network, social-media, sm, “social network” and “social media” as Organic Social. A medium containing “paid”, “cp” or “ppc” goes to Paid Social.

Which UTM parameters does GA4 read?

utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term, utm_id and utm_source_platform.

Do I need UTM tags if GA4 already sees LinkedIn as a source?

Without tags you see the network, not the post. utm_content tells you which post brought the visit.

Can I change GA4's default channel rules?

No — the default channel group cannot be edited, but you can build a custom channel group.

PaperFlight

GUIDE · GOOGLE ANALYTICS

UTM tags for social posts
that GA4 understands.

If you cannot see which post brought a visit, you cannot tell which posts work. UTM tags fix that: a few words added to each link to your site, which Google Analytics 4 reads. Get the medium right and GA4 files the visit under Organic Social; get it wrong and it lands in Unassigned.

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THE SHORT ANSWER

Add utm_source (the network, e.g. linkedin), utm_medium=social, utm_campaign (the theme or post type) and utm_content (one id per post) to every link that points to your own site. GA4 counts a session as Organic Social when the medium is social (or social-network, social-media, sm) or the source is a known social site — a medium with “paid”, “cp” or “ppc” in it goes to Paid Social instead. Then read the visits per post in GA4's traffic acquisition report.

The tags, and what to put in them

Parameter	Use it for	Example
utm_source	The network	linkedin
utm_medium	The kind of traffic — keep it social	social
utm_campaign	The theme or post type	myth_vs_fact
utm_content	Which post — one id each	post-0612
utm_term	Paid keywords (rarely needed for organic posts)	—
utm_id	A campaign id, if you use them	spring-launch

Tag your posts, step by step

1
Pick a naming rule and keep it
Lower case, no spaces: linkedin, instagram, social. Consistent names keep your reports from splitting one channel into three rows.
2
Tag only links to your own site
UTM tags tell your own analytics where a visit came from. Leave links to other sites as they are.
3
Build the link
Add ?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tip&utm_content=post-0612 to the link (Google's Campaign URL Builder does it for you).
4
Put it in the post or the first comment
Paste the tagged link where readers will click it. Use a different utm_content for every post.
5
Read it in GA4
In GA4, open Reports › Acquisition › Traffic acquisition and look at Organic Social; add “Session manual ad content” to see visits per post.

The one mistake to avoid

Putting the network in the medium — utm_medium=linkedin — is common and costly: GA4's default rules only recognise a short list of social mediums, so those visits fall out of Organic Social. Put the network in utm_source and keep utm_medium=social.

WITH PAPERFLIGHT

PaperFlight tags every link and shows the visits per post.

Every link to your own website in a post or its first comment is tagged as it goes out — the network as source, social as medium, the post type as campaign and the post's id as content — so GA4 files the visit under Organic Social. Connect Google Analytics and PaperFlight shows site visits and key events per post, and its Analyst moves next week's plan toward what brings visitors.

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Questions people ask.

What should utm_medium be for social posts?: social. GA4 counts social, social-network, social-media, sm, “social network” and “social media” as Organic Social. A medium containing “paid”, “cp” or “ppc” goes to Paid Social.
Which UTM parameters does GA4 read?: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term, utm_id and utm_source_platform.
Do I need UTM tags if GA4 already sees LinkedIn as a source?: Without tags you see the network, not the post. utm_content tells you which post brought the visit.
Can I change GA4's default channel rules?: No — the default channel group cannot be edited, but you can build a custom channel group.

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PaperFlight is an AI CMO with its own team: it plans the week, writes and designs every post in your brand, publishes it to eight channels and learns from the results. 7 days free, no card.

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Last checked 6 October 2026. Platforms change their limits and features often — check their help pages before you rely on a number.

UTM tags for social poststhat GA4 understands.