Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking 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, 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 reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly 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 day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of 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+ each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spot potential opportunities for engagement, spy on the competition, measure the impact of campaigns, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
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, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include online reputation managers, marketing professionals, market researchers, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article where we explore a number of social media measurement tools that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business,etc. More information:
(Are you looking for an effective tool that can help you track your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and growing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … turn more red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … 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 or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three 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 were able to notice 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 marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use. Ready To Use In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to turn reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers a number of features to web site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information right on your WP admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. 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 whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting. Reporting is in seconds, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort 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, category, publishing date, or post type.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are some of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have written 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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”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
Plugin Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you install Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This license allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase the Social Metrics Pro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was correct at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro 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 campaigns and shows you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to see measurable results.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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