Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various social signals when determining a website’s 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 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 social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining 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 second largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social media 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 interacting on Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has accrued, number 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 factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [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, measure and analyze social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, spot market opportunities, spy on the competition, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring 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, online reputation management (ORM) agencies, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about your brand so you can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Are you looking for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet effective social tracking tool for your WordPress-based site and improving your social media presence.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … convert more red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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 campaigns can result in higher search rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to turn all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with many features. Here are some:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays updated stats right on your WP admin bar, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Utilizes minimal resources. The plugin generates reports very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or post authors.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials that customers have written about the SocialMetricsPro 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
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
A practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on 1 website only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the product site and you may be shown 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.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various social signals to help determine 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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides 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 WordPress admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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