Social interactions like Facebook comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to 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, rather than 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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals 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 tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. It has been estimated that a single post 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 processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion 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 half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competitors, avert crises, and spot opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, social media marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to identify what consumers are saying about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore a number of social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Visit this page to learn more:
(Are you looking for an effective tool that can help you monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet highly effective social media tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to convert more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy Installation
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WP plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need you to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity from social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP admin area.
SocialMetricsPro 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro provides website owners with many features. Below we have listed just some of those features:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. Reporting is very quickly, using very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, category, publishing date, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data 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 really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
***
“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them how and where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social campaigns.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
***
***