Social recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence 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 social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(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 emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, assess competitor activity, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, avert disasters, and spot market opportunities. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, topics, brands, or businesses.
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 people including market researchers, digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed tools that facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. Go here to learn more about this:
(Are you searching for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-powered sites for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media presence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your admin account and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to turn all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social media activity from social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides website owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed a few:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated information right on your WP dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting. The plugin can generate reports fast, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data to 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 really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials plugin users 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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Social Metrics Pro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is selling for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the rise 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.
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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social marketing campaigns or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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