Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals to help determine website ranking.
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. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts 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 full ‘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 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 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 active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook 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 uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites.
(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 readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site 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 actively using GooglePlus every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites 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 media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes 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 a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable 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 website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can 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, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on the competition, be alerted to impending crises, and identify market opportunities. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, 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 a cross-section of groups that include marketing professionals, PR companies, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have made available tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track what is being said online about your products or brand allowing you to react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media monitoring tools that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more about this:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
This article explores a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to convert all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro 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”. From these tests, 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can significantly impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user section and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to turn reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro 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 on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers site owners with many features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats from your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. The plugin can generate reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter your 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 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Plugin Users
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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
Product 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
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license option lets you run SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current price when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller 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 current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 marketing campaigns and shows you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shorten your social media marketing learning curve.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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