Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts 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 short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of 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 plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and market share, avert crises, measure the impact of campaigns, and identify opportunities for engagement. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, businesses, brands, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track volume and sentiments of social conversations and social activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market researchers, marketing professionals, PR companies, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different service providers have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing several social media measurement tools and technologies that you may want to check out. More information:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple social monitoring plugin for a WordPress-based site and increasing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your goal is to convert all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand websites 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can dramatically can have a dramatic effect on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast Installation
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress administrator area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change all red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with many unique features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Ready to use in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses minimal resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, publishing date, or category.
- Export Data: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Users
Below are some of the testimonials users have written about SocialMetricsPro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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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
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you use SocialMetricsPro on one web site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license option enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details here:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you where and how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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