Social recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals 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 real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network on the planet. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(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 every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your 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 comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [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 and analyze social media 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 company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, spy on your competitors, and help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include online reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing professionals, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify what consumers are saying about your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more details:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple social media monitoring plugin for a WordPress-based online presence and increasing your social media exposure.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … change red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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”. 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 media marketing can affect your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like any regular WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to change more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
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 of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with a number of features. Below we have listed some of these features:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays updated information from your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updating. Update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Plugin uses minimal server resources. Reporting is very quickly, consuming little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, category, post authors, or publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 really simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Product Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to activate Social Metrics Pro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This license enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
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.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. 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 shows you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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