Social interactions like Facebook likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
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. 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 tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a full ‘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 websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person sharing the posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your URL has accrued, number and growth rate 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 social media-related signals that can influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, be alerted to disasters, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competition, and spot new market opportunities. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor social media 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 people including market research, online reputation management companies, marketing teams, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many providers have made available tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing many social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. More information:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is simple … change all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … just turn 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 display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing can dramatically affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Start Using In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs like any plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social media activity from social networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, 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 sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to WordPress users. Below we have listed some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest stats from your WP admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-update functionality. You can update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reporting is very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data 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 and plot filtered 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 really simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials that customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on one domain only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on all the domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing work for you.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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