Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
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. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘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 sites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google 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 monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is 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 social data and information from Facebook to help determine 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 next largest 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 followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [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 your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, avert disasters, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring 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 market researchers, marketing teams, PR companies, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of service providers have made available a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what is being said online about their brands allowing them to react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article where we explore several social media measurement tools that you may want to check out. More information:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media influence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is simple … convert reds into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can positively affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns need you to invest more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides a number of great features to WP users. Here are a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats from your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting configuration. The plugin can generate reports very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather 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 topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, category, post authors, or publishing date.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change more red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials and feedback that customers have written about SocialMetricsPro:
”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
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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
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on 1 site only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License Edition – This edition lets you install Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin is selling for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set 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 Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
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. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to measure your social marketing results professionally.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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