Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals 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 websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
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 interacting on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, spread rate 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 social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and 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 other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competitors, identify potential opportunities for engagement, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by embittered customers. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include PR staff, market research, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and sales teams. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different service providers have created tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, allowing you to track what consumers are saying about your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article where we explore many social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. More information:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for tracking social media signals and improving your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social 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 – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is to change all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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 noticed 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any other plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with many great features. Here are a few:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. Reporting is very quickly, using minimal server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have provided for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you install SocialMetricsPro on all the websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how to improve your 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 WP admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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