Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network on the planet. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site 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 interacting on Google+ each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media 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 overall visibility on social media, spot market opportunities, assess competitor activity and market dominance, 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 valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social media monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, marketing teams, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to identify consumer behavior around your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here for more information:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple social monitoring plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install 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 plugin measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … just turn 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 are colored amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, 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, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can dramatically impact your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Use In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to convert more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social activity from social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers a number of features to site owners. Below we have listed some of those features:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated information from your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, consuming little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or publishing date.
- Export Data: 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 very simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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
Social Metrics Pro – Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was current at the time this content was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
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. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and shows them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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