Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, 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 Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media 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 social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. 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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook 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 Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of monthly 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 every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility 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 disgruntled customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media 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 online reputation specialists, market researchers, marketing professionals, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more about this:
(Are you looking for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and improving your social media exposure.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn all red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites 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 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to turn more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity across leading social networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many great features to website owners. Here are just some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated stats from your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting configuration. The plugin generates reports very quickly, consuming little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or by post type.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials customers have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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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)
Plugin Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This lets you install SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This edition enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown 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.
Download The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various social signals to help determine 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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and shows 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 admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing measurable.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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