Social recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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. 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 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 websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community on the planet. Research shows that an average 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, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly 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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus 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 interacting on Google+ each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spot market opportunities. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, businesses, topics, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social media signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market research, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and agencies. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands so they can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing over 30 social media measurement tools that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. For more information, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet effective social media tracking plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your objective is simple … convert all reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most 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 their metrics on “green”. From these tests, 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, improving your social media marketing campaigns can can have a positive effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WordPress plugin. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to turn reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg.
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 is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides website owners with many unique features. Below we have listed some of these:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated stats from your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin uses very little server resources. Reports are compiled in seconds, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or by post type.
- Export Data: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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”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
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Licensing Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was correct at the time this content was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 how to improve your 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 SocialMetricsPro 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.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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