Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media 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 more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. It has been estimated 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, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search engine 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 the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the number of people sharing the posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, assess competitor activity, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, identify opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of groups that include marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here to learn more:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple social media tracking tool for your WordPress-based digital presence and increasing your social media presence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to make improving your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s job is to convert reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 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 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, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to change red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to invest more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon.
SocialMetricsPro 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 this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many great features to WP users. Below we have listed some of those:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of hosting resources. Metric reports are compiled in seconds, using minimal server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather and compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, post authors, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted 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 really simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials plugin users have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This license option allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software is selling for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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