Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than 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 assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. 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 true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly 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 each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media 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 the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, avert crises, and spy on the competition. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, products, businesses, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track social activity on social media channels like blogging, internet forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, 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 groups that include marketing teams, digital reputation specialists, market research, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small 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 different service providers have developed tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article listing over 30 social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about. Go here for more details:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media presence.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your objective is simple … convert reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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 noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to turn more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn.
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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information from your WP admin bar, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Utilizes minimal server resources. Reporting is very quickly, consuming very little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search 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 category, post type, publishing date, or 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 really simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have published 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to use social signals to get better search engine rankings.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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