Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, +1s on GooglePlus, 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 media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “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 wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 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 it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the number of people sharing your URL, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [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 monitor and analyze your social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, avert disasters, assess competitor activity and market dominance, spot potential market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track online conversations and 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 people including digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, marketing professionals, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various service providers have made available affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands so they can react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. To learn more about this go here:
(Are you searching for an effective tool to help you measure social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social monitoring tool for a WordPress-based web presence and increasing your social media exposure online.
Our Featured WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your task is simple … turn more red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every other WP plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your administrator section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to change reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to web site owners. Here are some of these features:
- 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 its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View updated stats right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Utilizes very little resources. Social reports are compiled very quickly, using very little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, category, post type, or publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered data and custom queries to 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 simple to use … just turn all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have submitted for 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to set up SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on all sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current at the time this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software 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 Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shorten your social media marketing learning curve.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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