Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence 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 media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites 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 look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. 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 business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website 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 half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sharing the URL, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [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 social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, identify opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity and market dominance, be alerted to disasters, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social media 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 groups that include market researchers, digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different service providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
To learn more about social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out, refer to this article:
(Can you measure your social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple social tracking plugin for your WordPress-based digital presence and increasing your social media presence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is simple … turn all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 their metrics on “green”. From these tests, 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, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many great features to site owners. Here are just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of server resources. Social metrics reports are generated fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or by publishing date.
- 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 change all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”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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”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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This license enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase the SocialMetricsPro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is selling for the amounts shown above. 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 you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals when determining website 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you where and how to improve your 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 WP dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social media campaigns.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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