Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media 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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post can reach up to 150,000 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 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, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest 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 importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number 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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(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?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including:
- 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 web page has, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, authority 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 social media-related signals that can influence search traffic. These include positive and negative 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 website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competition, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, spot new market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social media channels like blogs, internet forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including market researchers, online reputation specialists, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what consumers are saying about their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. More info:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
This article explores a simple social tracking plugin for your digital business presence and growing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … convert red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can can have a significant effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every other WordPress plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to turn all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Digg.
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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with a number of features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated information right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-update functionality. Update the plugin in 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.
- Minimal server resources usage. Metric reports are compiled fast, consuming little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & 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 post authors, publishing date, category, or by post type.
- 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 simple to use … just convert all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
“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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you run SocialMetricsPro on 1 site only. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This edition enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on all the domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
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. 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 shows you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress 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 shorten your social media marketing learning curve.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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