Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social 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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. 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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
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 influential social community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be 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 data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website 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 half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing your posts, 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. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [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 marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competition, spot new opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and be alerted to impending crises. It can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include digital reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market research, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller 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 affordable tools that facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what consumers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing several social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
This article explores a simple social tracking plugin for your digital presence and increasing your social media exposure.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is to change all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of 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 websites over a period of three 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure. Ready To Use In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like every other WordPress plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media 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.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with a number of great features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updates. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting. Reporting is in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you 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 post type, publishing date, post authors, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot data 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 very simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials users have provided for 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price at the time this article was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you where and how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which network are working for your business.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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