Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence 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 social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social community in the world. Research shows that a single post 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 Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all 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 day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of 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+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(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 like Google and Bing include 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, the authority of the person sending a tweet, 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 StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search engine rankings. These include desirable 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 other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure 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 what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competitors, spot opportunities for engagement, and avert crises. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video sites, and user-generated content 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 groups that include online reputation specialists, market researchers, marketing teams, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing over 30 social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more information, go here:
(Are you looking for an effective way to track your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for tracking social signals and increasing your social media exposure online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn all red squares 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 show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 everything “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice 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 result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Really Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to convert all red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides web site owners with many unique features. Here are just some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Ready to use in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information from your WP admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. Reporting is very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or by post type.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Customers
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have published about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This option allows you to set up SocialMetricsPro on 1 site only. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This license lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on all the sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for the Social Metrics Pro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the plugin is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
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 where and how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress 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 want to outperform your competitors on social media.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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