Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes social 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 largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social media 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 interacting socially on Google+ each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, spot new opportunities for engagement, be alerted to crises, spy on the competition, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
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, often carried out by a cross-section of groups that include digital reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing professionals, market researchers, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different providers have made available affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track what is being said online about your products or brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that could affect your business,etc. To learn more about this go here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is to change reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and 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 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any other plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with a number of great features. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats from your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, consuming very little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, publishing date, or by category.
- 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 really simple to use … just turn all the red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”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
***
”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This edition enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin author 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 current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to 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 to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
***
***