Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence 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 reliable ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly 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 day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media 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 year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has amassed, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track 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 what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, avert disasters, identify opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, products, 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 a cross-section of people including online reputation management (ORM) specialists, marketing professionals, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and sales teams. 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 service providers have created a range of tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. Visit this page for more details:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet highly effective social tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … change red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any other WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to turn red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn.
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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to WP users. Below we have listed some:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats from your WP dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Low-resource consumption. Social metrics reports are compiled in seconds, consuming little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or category.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Plugin Customers
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments customers have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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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
Product Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The 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 the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how and where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social media campaigns.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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