Social interactions like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Google’s own head of the 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not 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 to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has accrued, spread rate of adds and shares, 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 signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable 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 business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, spy on your competitors, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, spot new opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
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 market researchers, marketing teams, PR staff, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict 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 listing over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. For more details, go here:
(Are you searching for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and improving your social media presence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is to change all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can operate … 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 show up 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 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to convert all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need you to invest more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Digg 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 social campaigns 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.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with a number of great features. Below we have listed some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated information from your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-updating functionality. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reporting is in seconds, using very little hosting 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:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data: 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 very simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”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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”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
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license lets you run SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This license allows you to set up SocialMetricsPro on multiple websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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