Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere 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 normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook 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 business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest 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 emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has accrued, 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 signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of campaigns, spot market opportunities, and be alerted to disasters. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
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, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation management companies, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have made available tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to identify what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your products or brand so you can react to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that can affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. Go here to learn more about this:
(Are you looking for an effective way to track social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social media signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with the highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns need you to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and LinkedIn directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information from your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal server resources use. The plugin can generate reports very quickly, using little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search 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 post type, post authors, category, or publishing date.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have submitted regarding SocialMetricsPro:
”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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This license enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on all sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the SocialMetricsPro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro 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 how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing campaigns.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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