Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to 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 social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘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 normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, 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 Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of 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 every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has amassed, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [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 and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, be alerted to crises, spot market opportunities, spy on your competition, and measure the impact of campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, products, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including market researchers, marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of providers have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing several social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. Go here to learn more:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Featured WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is to convert more red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can significantly affect your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your admin user area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to change all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many unique features to website owners. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated information right on your WordPress admin bar, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. Update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Consumes very little hosting resources. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, using very little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or category.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
“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
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for 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 published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining 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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you where 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 WP dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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