Social recommendations like Facebook likes, comments, and shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence 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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘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 develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social network in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that 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 second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted 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 site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, 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 number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has accrued, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, spy on your competition, be alerted to crises, measure the impact of campaigns, and identify market opportunities. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
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 various people including digital reputation managers, market research, marketing teams, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. Typically, small businesses do not 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 tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. More information:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media presence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … just 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 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+ 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can dramatically affect your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to convert all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to put more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers web site owners with many features. Here are some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View the latest information from your WP dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, post type, or category.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data 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 really simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials that customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro includes 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).
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This option lets you use Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin 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 Recommend
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 guides you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social media campaigns.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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