Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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. 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 social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals 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 real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be 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 processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking 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 actively using GooglePlus every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [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 find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social media performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spot market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competition, and be alerted to impending crises. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, products, businesses, or topics.
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, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include digital reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing teams, market researchers, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business,etc. For more details:
(Are you looking for an effective way to track social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s objective is to change all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, more web traffic and more revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Very Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro installs like any WordPress plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to turn more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to centrally track and monitor social activity from social media networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers website owners with a number of great features. Here are some:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Minimal consumption of server resources. Metric reports are compiled fast, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, post type, or category.
- 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 really simple to use … just turn all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have written about SocialMetricsPro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license lets you run SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This edition enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The price of Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
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.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, 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. Social Metrics Pro 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 shows you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing measurable.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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