Social recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community on the planet. 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, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site 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 starting to interact socially on Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus 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 social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, spy on the competition, spot market opportunities, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and avert disasters. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 market research, marketing teams, digital reputation specialists, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here for more info:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your job is to turn all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … simply 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 plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every WordPress plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media 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?
- 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!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WP users with many great features. Below we have listed just some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays updated information right on your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click updates. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. Social reports are compiled in seconds, using very little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter the information 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 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change more reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials that users have submitted regarding 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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Plugin 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, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This license option enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
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 campaigns and guides them where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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