Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, likes, and 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, rather than 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 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 summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has accrued, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious 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 irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and assess competitor activity and market dominance. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media signal monitoring 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 groups that include market researchers, marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands so they can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. More info:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social media monitoring plugin for your WordPress-based digital presence and increasing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … turn all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ sites 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 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to change all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to WP users. Below we have listed some of those features:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to go to work in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updating. Update the plugin 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 works the smallest hosting configuration. Reporting is very quickly, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just convert more reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have written about 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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”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
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This option allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License Edition – This license option enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current when this content was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin 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 Plugin Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account a range of 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 website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to use social signals to get better search rankings.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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