Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of 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, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post 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 Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine 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 half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, number and growth rate of +1s, 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 factors that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [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 track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, identify market opportunities, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and assess competitor activity. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor conversations and social activity on social media 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 researchers, marketing professionals, online reputation management (ORM) companies, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed a range of tools that facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
Go here if you want to learn more social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns:
(Are you searching for an effective way to monitor your social signals?)
This article explores a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is to change all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of three 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 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, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every other WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to change more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity from social networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro 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 this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many unique features to web site owners. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats right on your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin uses very little hosting resources. Social reports are generated fast, using little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials users have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Product Licensing Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition lets you run Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on all domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the plugin 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 Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 marketing campaigns and shows you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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