Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, +1s on GooglePlus, 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 businesses 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 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 true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single 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 importance of Facebook in your business strategy, 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 engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
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 GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three 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 media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has accrued, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 factors that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable 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 irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business 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 performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify new market opportunities, spy on your competition, and help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market research, marketing professionals, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have made available tools that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing a number of social media measurement tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. More info:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your goal is to change all red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social activity across leading social media networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access updated information from your WP admin bar, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. 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 when new versions are released.
- Minimal use of hosting resources. Reporting is fast, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort 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 type, post authors, category, or publishing date.
- Export Data: 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are just a few of the testimonials that customers have submitted for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product License Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the SocialMetricsPro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software sells for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the site 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 Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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