Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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 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 perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value tend to 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 media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus 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 interacting socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals 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 likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has accrued, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors 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 other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, spy on your competitors, spot potential market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media channels like blogging, internet forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., message 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 various people including online reputation management companies, marketing teams, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community staff, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your brand or products so you can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media measurement tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. To learn more, visit this page:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites for tracking social media signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … turn reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … 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 or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro 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 their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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, improving your social marketing campaigns can positively affect your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to convert more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to centrally monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro 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 actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many great features. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to use in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats from your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-updating functionality. You can update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Low-resource consumption. Reporting is very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in 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 simple to use … just convert all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and comments customers have published about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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”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 practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license lets you use Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This edition lets you use SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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