Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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. 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 social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. 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 short, Google’s strategy is to “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 websites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post 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 importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online 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 single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
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 interacting on Google+ each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the authority of the person sharing your information, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has, number and growth rate of +1s, 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 signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and negative 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 visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity and mind share, be alerted to disasters, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social media monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including online reputation management (ORM) agencies, marketing teams, market research, professional sales reps, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of providers have created tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what consumers are saying about their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
To learn more about social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that could affect your business,etc, refer to this article:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s task is simple … convert all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ websites 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Use In No Time
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any regular plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your admin account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to convert more red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social activity across leading social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns 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 is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with many features. Here are just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats from your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin uses minimal resources. The plugin generates reports in seconds, using little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, category, post authors, or by publishing date.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials plugin users have written about 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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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
A 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.
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This allows you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information here:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro 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 would like to monitor which network are working for your business.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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