Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, comments, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 full ‘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 true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that 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 plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social 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 starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has amassed, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments 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 desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, avert impending crises, spy on the competition, spot market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific brands, businesses, products, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media channels like blogging, internet forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., discussion boards, video/photo sharing websites, 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 people including marketing professionals, PR agencies, market research, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what is being said online about their brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. For more details, go here:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you monitor social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring plugin for a WordPress-based online presence and increasing your social media influence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s objective is simple … change all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social activity across leading networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress dashboard.
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 on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WP users with many unique features. Here are just some:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. Reporting is in seconds, using very little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you 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, publishing date, post authors, or category.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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 Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have written about 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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”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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on 1 domain only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This license option lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, 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. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing measurable.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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