Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Google’s own head of its 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 perfect ‘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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, 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 website 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 500 million tweets sent out every 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: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing your URL is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive 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 of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, identify potential market opportunities, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track online conversations and activity on social media channels like blogging, internet forums, social networking platforms, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., discussion groups, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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, marketing professionals, digital reputation management companies, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately various service providers have made available many affordable tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. Learn more about this here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet effective social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and improving your social media exposure online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your objective is to turn more reds into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or 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 everything “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can significantly impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to convert more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to centrally track and monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
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 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 media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with many great features. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated information from your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. Social reports are generated in seconds, consuming little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries in 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Product Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on multiple websites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the Social Metrics Pro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
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 users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing measurable.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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