Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. 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 short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses 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 active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest 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 on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social 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)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and market dominance, spot potential opportunities for engagement, be alerted to crises, and measure the impact of campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
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 a cross-section of groups that include PR companies, marketing professionals, market research, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools that facilitate the monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify what is being said online about their brands so they can respond to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress 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 returns either a red or green indicator. Your task is simple … change all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with 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 their metrics on “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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Digg, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro 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 is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers web site owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed just some of these features:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest stats from your WP dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting configuration. Reports are compiled fast, using very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or 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 really simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have provided for 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Product Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on all sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The price of the Social Metrics Pro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product developer 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
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This 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. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them how and where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal 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 use social signals to get better search engine rankings.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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