Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 reliable ‘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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be 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 data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social site 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 every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 engine rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spot opportunities for engagement. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social media 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, marketing teams, digital reputation management companies, sales teams, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track what consumers are saying about their brands or products so they can respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore many social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. More information:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … convert all reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or 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 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 campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like any other WordPress plugin. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to convert all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns need more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Select Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social activity across leading social networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to website owners. Below we have listed just some of these:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View updated information right on your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. Social reports are compiled very quickly, using very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or category.
- Export Data: 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just convert all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials plugin users have published 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This license lets you install Social Metrics Pro on all web sites that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the product 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
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account social signals when determining a site’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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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