Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social 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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other 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 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion 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 is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(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?
Search engines track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, spread rate 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 factors that can influence search traffic and rankings. 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 of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, be alerted to impending crises, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, assess competitor activity and market dominance, and spot new opportunities for engagement. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor conversations, activity, and trends on social media channels like blogging, internet forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market research, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools to facilitate the tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to track what is being said online about their brands so they can respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media monitoring tools that are worth knowing about. For more details, go here:
(Are you searching for an effective way to monitor social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Our Featured WordPress Product …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you increase your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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”. From these tests, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Installation Is Easy, Fast And Simple
Social Metrics Pro installs like any WP plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to change more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to centrally monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts 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 of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with many great features. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Consumes minimal resources. Reports are generated very quickly, consuming very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data to 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just change red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that users have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
“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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”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
Product Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option allows you to use SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This edition enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on all sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin 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 current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their 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 admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social marketing campaigns.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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