Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, 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 brand on social media 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. It has been estimated that an average post 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 to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can 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 the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 influence search engine traffic and rankings. 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 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 social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, brand, or company on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, be alerted to disasters, spy on your competitors, and identify market opportunities. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, businesses, brands, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor 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 various groups that include marketing professionals, PR companies, market researchers, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many providers have created affordable tools that facilitate the tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. To learn more, go here:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring plugin for a WordPress-based website and increasing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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”. From these tests, they noticed 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can affect your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to change more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns need you to invest more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with many great features. Here are some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to use in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information right on your WP dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting configuration. Social reports are generated in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post authors, post type, or publishing date.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials that plugin customers 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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license option lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website 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 Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you how and 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 dashboard.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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