Social recommendations like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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. Google’s own head of its 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay 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 likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, spread rate of adds and shares, 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 social media-related factors that can influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, assess competitor activity and market share, measure the impact of campaigns, avert crises, and spot market opportunities. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
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, often carried out by various people including market researchers, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing teams, agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various service providers have developed tools that facilitate the tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your brand so you can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple social media monitoring plugin for your WordPress-based site and growing your social media influence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your goal is simple … change more red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can positively affect your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to turn more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns need more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many features. Below we have listed some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-upgrade functionality. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of hosting resources. The plugin generates reports fast, consuming little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or post type.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data 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 turn all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials and comments that plugin customers have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals when determining a site’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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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