Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 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 processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(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 each 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 number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, 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 Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, 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 and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, assess competitor activity, identify new opportunities for engagement, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media 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 digital reputation management companies, marketing professionals, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. More info:
(Are you looking for an effective way to track social signals?)
This article discusses a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is to change red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most show up 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 3 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly can have a positive effect on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Easy To Install
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to convert all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Digg, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon.
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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with many features. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest information right on your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-updating functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, using very little hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, publishing date, or category.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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 turn more reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials that users have provided 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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”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
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the SocialMetricsPro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and guides you where to direct your efforts in order 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 WP admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social media marketing measurable.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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