Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value normally 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 sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 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 power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other 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 single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media 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 GooglePlus each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, 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. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (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 social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, spy on the competition, and identify opportunities for engagement. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal 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, online reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing teams, agencies, social engagement and community staff, and sales teams. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed affordable tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to track consumer behavior around their products or brands so they can react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. If you would like to learn more about this here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple social media tracking plugin for a WordPress-based online business and growing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s task is simple … convert reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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”. From these tests, they noticed 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 marketing campaigns can impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to turn red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to centrally monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
SocialMetricsPro 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many unique features to WordPress users. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information from your WP dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal hosting resources usage. Reporting is in seconds, using little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, category, publishing date, or post authors.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s 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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social media marketing campaigns.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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