Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 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 websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest 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 on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social 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 Google and Bing 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 your URL has, the number of people sharing the posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has accrued, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [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 presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, assess competitor activity and mind share, and identify new market opportunities. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, topics, products, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social media 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 people including marketing teams, market research, online reputation management (ORM) companies, sales teams, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed affordable tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what is being said online about their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
Go here if you would like to learn more about social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social signals and improving your social media presence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is to change more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and 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 everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to turn 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 Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social activity from social networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro 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 can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with a number of features. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WP admin bar, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Social metrics reports are generated in seconds, consuming very little hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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 convert red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have published 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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“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 social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on all the sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing campaigns.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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