Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘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 websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post 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 business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, 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 second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media 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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity, be alerted to impending crises, spot market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring 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 marketing professionals, market researchers, digital reputation management companies, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have created affordable tools that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. See this page for more information:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-powered sites for tracking social media signals and growing your social media influence.
Our Featured WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the system tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is simple … change more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 their metrics on “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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can dramatically affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro 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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers web site owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated information right on your WP dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. The plugin generates reports in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, post type, or by category.
- 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 very simple to use … just convert all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials that customers have written about Social Metrics Pro:
”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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”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
Plugin Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product License Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This edition enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was current when this content was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Plugin
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 marketing campaigns and shows you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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