Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts 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 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 a sensible one - “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 rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average 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, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online 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.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially 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, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, the authority of the person sharing the posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has accrued, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, 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 undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [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 social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spot market opportunities, spy on your competitors, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track volume and sentiments of social conversations, trends, and social activity on social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., discussion boards, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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 people including online reputation management (ORM) companies, market researchers, marketing teams, sales teams, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different providers have created affordable tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore over 30 social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. To learn more, go here:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social tracking plugin for a WordPress-based website and increasing your social media exposure.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is to turn more reds into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most 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 everything “green”. From these tests, 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can significantly can have a positive effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Installation Is Easy
Social Metrics Pro installs like any plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your admin user section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social activity from networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers website owners with many features. Here are just some of these features:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Utilizes minimal server resources. The plugin generates reports in seconds, using little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot data 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just turn reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that users have submitted for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This edition enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This option allows you to use SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account social signals to help determine a website’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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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