Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
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 social 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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook 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 importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of 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 has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search 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 other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spot opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor volume and sentiments of online conversations, activity, and trends on social media channels like blogging, forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market researchers, online reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. Go here for more information:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media presence online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s task is to turn all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice 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 media marketing can dramatically can have a dramatic impact on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every other plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn more red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many features. Here are a few:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest stats from your WP admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin uses minimal server resources. Reporting is fast, using little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather and compile 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, post type, or publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered data and custom queries to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials customers have written about Social Metrics Pro:
”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
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This license allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on all sites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
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 how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them how and where 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 WordPress admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing work for you.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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