Social interactions like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social 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 its web spam team Matt Cutts 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 sites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 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 the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and identify potential market opportunities. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track social media channels like blogs, internet forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market research, online reputation specialists, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many providers have made available tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore over 30 social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about. To learn more, go here:
(Are you looking for an effective tool that can help you monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure 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 task is to turn more red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 everything “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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs like every plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change all reds 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 which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social media activity from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP admin area.
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 Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers site owners with a number of great features. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. View the latest information right on your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports fast, using minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or post type.
- Export Data: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries to 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 very simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials plugin users have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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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
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license option enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on all websites that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install 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. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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