Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence 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 web spam team 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 perfect ‘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 develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of 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 plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus 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 starting to interact socially on Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media 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 comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your web 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 factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [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 track and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competitors, identify market opportunities, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, businesses, brands, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of people including PR companies, market research, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses don’t 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 service providers have created affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to track consumer behavior around their products or brands so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
Go here to learn more about social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is to turn more red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can dramatically affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WP plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to website owners. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest information from your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting configuration. Social metrics reports are compiled in seconds, using minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort 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, category, publishing date, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have written 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
***
”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
Plugin Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Licensing Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This license lets you install Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase the SocialMetricsPro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro 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 tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro 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 where and how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to reduce your social media marketing learning curve.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
***
***