Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence 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 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 the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post 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 power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus or 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 half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer 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: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking 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 GooglePlus each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, such as 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 Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has, number and authority 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 signals that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, brand, or company on social media, identify potential opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competition, and help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, market researchers, marketing professionals, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to identify what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that you may want to check out. To learn more, visit this page:
(Are you searching for an effective way to monitor social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s objective is simple … change more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ 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 a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in higher search rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like every plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know where to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity across leading social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WordPress users with a number of features. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information from your WP dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal consumption of server resources. The plugin can generate social metrics reports in seconds, using minimal server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data to 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 all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials customers have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option lets you run Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
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.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking 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 marketing campaigns and guides them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized networks.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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