Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, comments, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account various social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social 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 web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media 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 more importance to the social sphere 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 value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media 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 community on the planet. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing the URL, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, spy on the competition, measure the impact of campaigns, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, and spot market opportunities. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal 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, marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, social media marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore several social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. See this page to learn more:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is to change all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. From these tests, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly can have a dramatic effect on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast & Easy Installation
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every WP plugin. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WP admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers website owners with many features. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Ready to use in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest information from your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new plugin updates are released.
- Utilizes very little resources. Reporting is very quickly, using minimal server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, category, 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials that customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This license option enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on multiple sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin retails for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
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 how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you where to direct your efforts in order 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 WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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