Social interactions like Facebook shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining 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 own 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 more importance to social signals 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 websites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signal Sources
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 influential social media community in the world. It has been estimated 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 Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, avert disasters, spot potential market opportunities, and assess competitor activity and mind share. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, businesses, brands, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social media signal 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 professionals, online reputation management (ORM) companies, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed affordable tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, allowing companies to track what consumers are saying about their brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple plugin for WordPress-driven sites for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is to change all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ 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 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every WP plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change more red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers web site owners with many features. Here are just some:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats from your WP dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-updating functionality. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. The plugin generates reports fast, using very little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, category, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data 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 turn all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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”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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This option lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on multiple web sites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, 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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and shows them how and where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro 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 see measurable results.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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