Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook comments, likes, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. 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 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 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 sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not 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 shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media 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 like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [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 presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, identify new market opportunities, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track conversations, activity, and trends on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including PR companies, marketing professionals, market research, social marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have made available tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing several social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that affect your business,etc. For more information, go here:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you track your social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your objective is to convert more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand sites 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 were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 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 marketing can significantly impact your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to convert reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress admin area.
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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers a number of great features to website owners. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats right on your WP dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-upgrading functionality. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. Reports are generated in seconds, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, post type, or by category.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert all reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials users have written about SocialMetricsPro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.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
Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single site. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This license option lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this content was published. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the product website 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.
Get The Plugin
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 the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and shows them where and how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your social media marketing learning curve.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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