Paracompass

Digital Performance Dashboard

Vanderbilt Institute of National Security

February 2026  ·  Benchmarked against January 2026

February at a Glance

The General Dan Caine keynote announcement and Sir Richard Moore event drove simultaneous spikes across every channel — LinkedIn organic impressions surged 224%, website traffic more than doubled, and the newsletter hit its highest open rate of the period.

Website Sessions

7,476

vs. 3,185 in Jan

+134.7% vs. Jan

LinkedIn Impressions

47,558

organic

+224.5% vs. Jan

Newsletter Open Rate

57.1%

1,293 opens

+17% vs. Jan

Newsletter Click Rate

8.5%

193 unique

-44.1% vs. Jan

New LinkedIn Followers

+268

record month

Instagram Views

60,990

9 posts, 17 stories

Media Mentions

149

vs. 38 in Jan

+292% vs. Jan

Instagram Followers

~600

+72 new

-10% vs. Jan

Key Takeaways

  • Gen. Caine announcement was the month's content engine. The Feb 3 LinkedIn post announcing his keynote generated 22,371 organic impressions with a 5.3% ER. Combined with sponsored reach, the total post reached 55,066.
  • Instagram views surged to 60,990 — the Feb 4 Caine post alone drove 20,300 views and the Feb 5 Summit content 13,149. The account grew to ~600 followers.
  • Newsletter open rate hit 57.1% — highest of the reporting period, above the 2025 annual average of 54.1%. Click rate normalized to 8.5% (above 7.6% annual avg) after January's event-driven spike.
  • Website traffic more than doubled to 7,476 sessions. The US drove 4,047 active users; China was second at 1,005 — reflecting academic and policy-tracking interest.
  • Media mentions tripled to 149 (vs. 38 in Jan), led by online news coverage of the Sir Richard Moore lecture and Gen. Nakasone's Defense Tech Leadership Summit appearance. Reach of 30.3M reflects mid-tier outlet mix vs. January's single high-reach placement (469M).

Month-over-Month Summary

MetricJanuary 2026February 2026Change
Website Sessions3,1857,476+134.7%
LinkedIn Org. Impressions14,65447,558+224.5%
LinkedIn New Followers~48268Record
LinkedIn Org. ER6.11%9.16%+50.1%
Newsletter Open Rate48.8%57.1%+17.0pp
Newsletter Click Rate15.2%8.5%−44.1pp
Newsletter Optouts73−57%
Instagram Views60,990New high
Instagram New Followers+80+72−10%
Media Mentions38149+292%
Paid LinkedIn Spend$689$689Jan only