Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
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 brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of its 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 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 value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of 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 each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has amassed, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social media performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, avert crises, spy on your competition, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spot opportunities for engagement. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor activity on social media channels like blogs, internet forums, social networking sites, micro-blogging platforms, message boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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 marketing professionals, market research, online reputation management companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology providers have developed a range of tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands so they can react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
Go here to learn more about social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media exposure online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your job is to convert all reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any regular plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to turn all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro 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 Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Digg, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with a number of great features. Below we have listed a few:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Minimal hosting resources usage. Social reports are compiled in seconds, using very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro 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, post authors, publishing date, or by 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just turn more red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
SocialMetricsPro – 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.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on unlimited sites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get 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 the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro 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 guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns in-house.
For more details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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