Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites 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 Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of 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 online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking 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 GooglePlus every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, 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 (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to 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 marketing can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, be alerted to disasters, spot potential market opportunities, spy on your competition, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social activity, volume and sentiments of social conversations, and trends on social media channels like blogging, internet forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., discussion boards, video sites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including marketing professionals, digital reputation specialists, market researchers, professional sales reps, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here for more info:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social media monitoring tool for WordPress and improving your social media presence online.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … turn all red squares into greens.
(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 receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ sites 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can significantly can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to turn more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Digg, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP admin area.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WP users with many unique features. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays the latest information from your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. Update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin uses minimal hosting resources. Reporting is in seconds, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post authors, post type, or 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials and comments that users have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”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
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This lets you use SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and shows you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social media campaigns.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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