Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
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 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 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 full ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be 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 social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social 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 interacting on GooglePlus each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine traffic and 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 website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, spy on your competitors, spot opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track conversations, trends, and social activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of groups that include digital reputation management companies, market research, marketing professionals, social engagement and community personnel, sales teams, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, allowing companies to track what consumers are saying about their products or brands allowing them to react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article where we explore a number of social media measurement tools that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-driven sites for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence online.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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”. 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 better search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In No Time
SocialMetricsPro installs like every other WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to turn all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WordPress users with many features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest information right on your WP dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Utilizes minimal resources. Social reports are generated fast, consuming minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post type, publishing date, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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 change red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials customers 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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”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
Product Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license option allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This lets you run SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information here:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro 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 how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing campaigns work for you.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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