Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 can change at a moment’s notice. 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 real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that an average 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 the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes 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 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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay 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 sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 factors that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, be alerted to impending crises, assess competitor activity and mind share, identify potential opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of service providers have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article listing many social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here for more info:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is simple … change reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 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 can have a dramatic effect on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to convert more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers a number of great features to WordPress users. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to use in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reporting is in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- 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 really simple to use … just convert all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted for 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 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
Social Metrics Pro – 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.
Social Metrics Pro Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on 1 domain only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase the SocialMetricsPro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the software developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get 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 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 instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro 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 outperform your competitors on social media.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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