Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online 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 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 day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, avert impending crises, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media 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, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including online reputation managers, marketing teams, market research, social engagement and community staff, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed a range of tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands so they can react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. For more info, see this article:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring tool for WordPress and increasing your social media presence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is to turn red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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 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, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Start Using In No Time
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress admin area.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many unique features to WP users. Here are some of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest information right on your WP dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Minimal consumption of hosting resources. Reporting is in seconds, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials that users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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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 Plugin – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This option enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on multiple websites that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how and where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing work for you.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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