Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking 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. 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 social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social 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 droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses 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.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(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 include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the authority of the person sharing your URL, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has accrued, number 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 factors that can influence search rankings. These include desirable and negative 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 important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, spot opportunities for engagement, and assess competitor activity and market dominance. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, products, businesses, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track activity on social media channels like blogs, internet forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include marketing professionals, online reputation management companies, market research, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of providers have created tools and solutions that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your products or brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article listing a number of social media measurement tools that you may want to check out. For more information, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ 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”. From these tests, 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 media marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Digg directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WP users with many features. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View updated stats from your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of hosting resources. Reporting is very quickly, using minimal server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, category, or by publishing date.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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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
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This license option enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on all web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct when this article was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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