Social interactions like Facebook shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media 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 the 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 can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each 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 Plus
Google’s own social networking site 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 actively using GooglePlus every week. 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 signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot new opportunities for engagement, spy on the competition, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track social media 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 marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various service providers have developed tools that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand so you can react to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing a number of social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. For more information, go here:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple social monitoring plugin for your online business and increasing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … convert reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can positively impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Easy To Install
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social 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.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro 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 on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many great features to web site owners. Below we have listed some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated information right on your WP dashboard, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click updates. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources usage. The plugin can generate social metrics reports in seconds, using little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have written about 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on a single website. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The 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. Social Metrics Pro 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 and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro 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 this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing campaigns work for you.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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