Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second 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 value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has amassed, number and growth rate 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 factors that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media channels like blogs, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Quora, etc., message boards, video sites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, allowing companies to track consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. To learn more, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social monitoring plugin for WordPress and improving your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro 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 – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin 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”. From these tests, they noticed 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 media marketing can result in higher search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs like any other WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to turn all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers site owners with many features. Below we have listed some:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to use in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-update functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses very little hosting resources. Reporting is very quickly, consuming very little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, publishing date, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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 very simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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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)
SocialMetricsPro – Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Plugin Information
SocialMetricsPro 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 sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social campaigns.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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