Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, 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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. 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, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single 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 number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of 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 day. 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, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL 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 URL has accrued, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search rankings. 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 other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competition, identify opportunities for engagement, and help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific brands, products, businesses, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track social media channels like blogging, forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, message boards, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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 marketing teams, online reputation specialists, market research, social engagement and community personnel, sales teams, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article where we explore many social media measurement tools that you may want to check out. For more information, go here:
(Can you measure your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and increasing your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … convert reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with the highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and 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 everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can positively can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social 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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to WordPress users. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated information right on your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-upgrading functionality. Update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal hosting resources use. Reporting is fast, using minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or post type.
- 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 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
Here are some of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted regarding 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 is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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