Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, 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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community in the world. It has been estimated 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 website, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly 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 each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online 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 single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person sharing the posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, number 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 factors that can indirectly influence search 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 irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify new opportunities for engagement, spy on your competition, and help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. It can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor 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, often carried out by various people including digital reputation specialists, market research, marketing teams, sales teams, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media measurement tools that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that could affect your business,etc. Go here for more information:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your goal is to change reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can follow … turn 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 SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 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 noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social marketing can significantly can have a significant effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like any plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to convert all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress admin area.
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 on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to WordPress users. Below we have listed a few:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays the latest stats right on your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal hosting resources use. The plugin generates social metrics reports fast, consuming little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post authors, publishing date, or by post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change more reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials and comments plugin customers 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
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This allows you to activate Social Metrics Pro on all the domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the SocialMetricsPro product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the product website 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 Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining 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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and shows them where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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