Social recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking 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. 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 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 short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media 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 Google+ every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites 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 like Bing and Google include:
- 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 number of people sharing your information, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – 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, comments 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 rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, assess competitor activity and market share, and spot market opportunities. It can also provide you with vital data 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, typically carried out by various groups that include marketing teams, market researchers, PR companies, social engagement and community personnel, sales teams, and agencies. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various technology providers have developed tools to facilitate the active tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to identify what is being said online about your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for monitoring social media signals and growing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your goal is simple … turn more reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro 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 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 can positively affect your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro installs like every plugin. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to convert red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to WP users. Here are some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest information right on your WordPress admin bar, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Minimal usage of server resources. Social reports are generated fast, consuming little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort 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 publishing date, post type, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered 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 simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have provided for 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was correct at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software developer 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 Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them 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 right from your WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing campaigns.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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