Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals to help determine a site’s 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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 sites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. Research shows that one great 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 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 shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
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 interacting on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – 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 social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot market opportunities, spy on your competitors, and be alerted to disasters. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 marketing teams, market researchers, PR companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track what consumers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your brand or products so you can respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media measurement tools that you may want to check out here:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you measure social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media presence online.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users grow their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your goal is to turn all the reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of three 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 noticed 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Installation Is Easy, Simple And Fast
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which campaigns need more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to use in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin uses minimal resources. The plugin generates reports very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, post type, or by publishing date.
- 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 turn more red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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 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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. 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 strategy and shows you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing work for you.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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