Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, 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 social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ 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 actively using Google+ every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media 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 Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has amassed, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [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 marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, avert impending crises, spy on the competition, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media channels like blogging, forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., discussion boards, video sites, and user-generated content 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 PR staff, marketing teams, market research, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand or products so you can react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. To learn more about this go here:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
This article explores a simple social monitoring tool for your WordPress-based online business and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Featured WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your goal is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … 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 display amber or 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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 media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and increased revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick Installation
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns 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.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WordPress users with many great features. Here are just some:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View the latest information right on your WP dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updates. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal usage of hosting resources. Reporting is fast, using little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just convert all red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have written about 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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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This option lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author 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 Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
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 media marketing campaigns and guides you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized networks.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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