Social recommendations like Facebook shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals to help determine 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. 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 so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere 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 websites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every 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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has accrued, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include positive and negative 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 of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, avert crises, spy on your competition, and identify market opportunities. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, businesses, brands, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market research, marketing teams, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have created tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand or products so you can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
To learn more about social media tracking tools that you may want to check out, refer to this article:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet effective social media tracking tool for a WordPress-based online presence and growing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to change all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored 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 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In No Time
Social Metrics Pro installs like any other plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to change all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Select Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity from networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WordPress users with many great features. Here are some of these:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information from your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. Update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting. Social metrics reports are generated fast, using minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries in 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 all red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are just a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on one web site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License Edition – This edition allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer 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 information here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and 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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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