Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook comments, likes, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. Research shows that a single post can reach up to 150,000 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 importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a website 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 and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot new market opportunities, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, and assess competitor activity and market dominance. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, businesses, products, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of people including market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation management companies, social marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about your brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore a number of social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here for more info:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social media signals and growing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is simple … change all red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares show up 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 2,000+ websites 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 noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 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, improving your social marketing can significantly affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Installation Is Easy, Fast And Simple
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to change all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity across leading networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to site owners. Here are a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Uses very little server resources. The plugin generates reports very quickly, consuming little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post authors, or by post type.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin users have written about 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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”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
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license option allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This option enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social marketing results professionally.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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