Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. Research shows that one great 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 Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(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 has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ 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 starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, how influential the person sharing the URL is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has accrued, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track 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 marketing professionals, market researchers, PR companies, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media measurement tools that are worth knowing about. To learn more about this go here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … turn more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the 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 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”. 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 can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social activity from networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro 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 of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of features to WordPress users. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated stats right on your WP dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting configuration. Reporting is in seconds, using minimal server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter 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 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials and comments that users have submitted 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 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
Social Metrics Pro comes with 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).
Product Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This option allows you to activate Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
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. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how 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 admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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