Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes 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 GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has, number and authority 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 factors that can influence search traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, identify potential opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track social media channels like blogging, internet forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., discussion boards, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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 groups that include market researchers, marketing teams, online reputation management companies, social media marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what is being said online about their brands or products allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Are you searching for an effective way to track social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective social tracking tool for WordPress and improving your social media presence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s objective is simple … convert more reds into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can significantly can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator account and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with many unique features. Here are just some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats right on your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reporting is fast, consuming very little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just change more red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license option lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This option enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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