Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, 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 since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than 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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere 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 sites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display 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 monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. It has been estimated that one great 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 the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ 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 half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(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:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has amassed, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on the competition, and identify market opportunities. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
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 market researchers, online reputation management (ORM) agencies, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what is being said online about their brands so they can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
Go here if you would like to learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that you may want to check out:
(Can you monitor your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-powered websites for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your goal is simple … convert more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to convert red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to WP users. Here are a few:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of server resources. Reporting is in seconds, consuming little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in 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 simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials users have written about 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 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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you use Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This lets you install SocialMetricsPro on all domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, 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 media marketing campaigns and guides you how and where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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