Social interactions like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing your URL, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competition, identify opportunities for engagement, and avert impending crises. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor volume and sentiments of social conversations, trends, and activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of people including market research, PR companies, marketing teams, sales teams, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. If you are interested in learning more about this here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and improving your social media presence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is simple … turn all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like any regular WP plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to turn all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity from social networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with many great features. Below we have listed some:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to use in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information from your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal hosting resources use. Social metrics reports are generated fast, consuming little hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change all red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this article was written. This may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you where and how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social media marketing measurable.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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