Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media 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 own web spam team 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 full ‘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 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 ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest 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 on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site 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 on Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person sharing your URL is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search rankings. 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 irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, spot new opportunities for engagement, spy on your competition, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social 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 marketing professionals, market research, online reputation specialists, professional sales reps, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of providers have created a range of tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what consumers are saying about their brands or products so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here to learn more about this:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective social media tracking tool for WordPress and improving your social media presence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is to turn all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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, improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to change more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers website owners with many features. Below we have listed a few:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information right on your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal consumption of hosting resources. Social metrics reports are generated fast, consuming very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or post authors.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials and comments that users have provided for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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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)
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license option allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product 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 the current pricing:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to 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 where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which social networks are working for your business.
For more information, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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