Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. 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 can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of 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 has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, the authority of the person sharing the information, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, identify potential market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track volume and sentiments of online conversations and activity on social media 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 teams, digital reputation management companies, agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many technology providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. For more info, see this article:
(Are you searching for an effective tool to help you measure your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple social media tracking plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s job is simple … change all the red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin 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 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Installation Is Easy, Simple & Fast
SocialMetricsPro installs just like any other WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to turn more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social media activity across leading social networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to WordPress users. Below we have listed some of these:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses minimal server resources. Reports are generated fast, consuming little hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search 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, category, post authors, 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials that users have written about SocialMetricsPro:
”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
***
”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The price of the SocialMetricsPro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the plugin 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 here:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows 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 WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social marketing.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
***
***