Social recommendations like Facebook likes, comments, and shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social 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 the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community on the planet. 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 droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes 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 active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, 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 Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing the URL is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has amassed, number and growth rate of +1s, 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 factors that can influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, avert disasters, spy on your competition, and measure the impact of campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor volume and sentiments of social conversations, activity, and trends on social media 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 market researchers, online reputation management (ORM) specialists, marketing professionals, professional sales reps, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore many social media monitoring tools that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business, etc, see what conversations are taking place online that can affect your business,etc. More information:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is simple … convert red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like every plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to change all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity across leading social media networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of features to WP users. Here are some:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated stats right on your WP admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal usage of resources. Metric reports are compiled in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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 turn red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”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
Plugin Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This license option enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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