Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
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 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 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 websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses 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 rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest 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 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
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has amassed, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social activity on social media channels like blogging, forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., message boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market research, digital reputation specialists, marketing teams, professional sales reps, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify what is being said online about your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore many social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. More info:
(Can you measure your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective social media monitoring tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … change reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast Installation
Social Metrics Pro installs like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to change red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to WordPress users. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated information from your WP admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting. Social reports are generated in seconds, using very little hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search 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 authors, category, post type, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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 very simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin users have published 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on all sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
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. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and shows them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to see measurable results.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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