Social interactions like Facebook likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social 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 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 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 Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses 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.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single 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 number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media 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 socially on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, avert disasters, measure the impact of campaigns, spot potential market opportunities, and assess competitor activity. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including market researchers, PR companies, marketing professionals, social engagement and community personnel, sales teams, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different providers have developed many tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify what is being said online about your brand allowing you to react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing many social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. For more information, go here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence.
Our Featured WordPress Product Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is to turn red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Easy, Fast And Simple To Install
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides site owners with many unique features. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-updating functionality. Update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, using minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter your data 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: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries to 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 simple to use … just change red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about SocialMetricsPro:
“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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”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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This option lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on all websites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product sells for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Product
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how and where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social campaigns.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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