Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s 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. 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 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 sites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. It has been estimated that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes 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 active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying 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 a site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, number and authority of +1s, 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 signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, assess competitor activity and market dominance, spot potential market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring 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 groups that include market research, marketing professionals, PR companies, professional sales reps, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed a range of tools to facilitate the monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to track what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about their brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
To learn more about social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about, see this article:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social tracking tool for your WordPress-based website and improving your social media presence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … 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 display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ 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”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice 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 significantly impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to turn all red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social activity from networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many unique features to web site owners. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information right on your WP dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports in seconds, consuming little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro 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 authors, post type, category, or publishing date.
- Export Data: 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have provided 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
Product Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This license allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the Social Metrics Pro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shorten your path to success with social media marketing.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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