Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook comments, likes, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 websites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses 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 GooglePlus or Twitter.
(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 each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social 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 interacting socially on GooglePlus every week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, avert impending crises, spy on your competition, measure the impact of campaigns, and spot new market opportunities. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, 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 marketing professionals, market research, online reputation management (ORM) companies, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have created a range of tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more:
(Are you searching for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media influence.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make increasing your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s job is simple … change all the red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites 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 a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 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 marketing campaigns can positively affect your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your admin user area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity from networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social 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 can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many features. Here are just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting configuration. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering 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 topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post authors, publishing date, or post type.
- 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 very simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have published about the SocialMetricsPro 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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This lets you run Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $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. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the product 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.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to 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 users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how and where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro 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 getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social marketing.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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