Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence 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 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network on the planet. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is 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 when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of 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 day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, Google+ 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+ every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social 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 Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has amassed, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable 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 website owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spot opportunities for engagement, be alerted to disasters, and assess competitor activity and market dominance. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, products, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor online conversations and activity on social media 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 groups that include market researchers, PR staff, marketing professionals, social media marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article where we explore many social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. More info:
(Are you searching for an effective way to monitor social signals?)
This article discusses a simple social media tracking tool for your WordPress-based web presence and improving your social media exposure.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ 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, improving your social marketing can dramatically impact your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are just some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal hosting resources usage. The plugin generates social metrics reports fast, consuming little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro 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 publishing date, post authors, post type, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are a few 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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Product Tips
A practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This allows you to set up SocialMetricsPro on one web site only. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
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 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 immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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