Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook comments, 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, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own 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 short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, the number of people sharing your posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [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 marketing to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, identify market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, and spy on your competition. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, businesses, brands, 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 various groups that include market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have made available affordable tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
Go here to learn more about social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media monitoring plugin for your WordPress-based digital business presence and increasing your social media presence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your objective is simple … convert more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs like any regular plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to turn red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social 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.
Select Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, and LinkedIn 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 of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to web site owners. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information from your WordPress admin bar, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting configuration. Social reports are compiled fast, consuming very little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, post authors, or by category.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just turn all the reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials and comments plugin customers have submitted regarding 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This option lets you install SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates 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 special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
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.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced 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 want to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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