Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 sites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, 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 engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of 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 has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus 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 actively using Google+ every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, 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 desirable and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot potential opportunities for engagement, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, measure the impact of campaigns, and assess competitor activity. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, products, or brands.
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, often carried out by various groups that include digital reputation managers, marketing teams, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology providers have developed many affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing several social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. For more details, go here:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress websites and blogs for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s task is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. From these tests, they noticed that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WordPress users with a number of great features. Here are some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting. Reporting is in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Product Tips
A 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) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
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.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to use social signals to get better search engine rankings.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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