Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, 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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. It has been estimated that one great 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 site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest 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 emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social media site 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 on Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 factors that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [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 monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, identify opportunities for engagement, spy on your competitors, and measure the impact of campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including PR companies, marketing professionals, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various providers have created affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. For more details, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media monitoring tool for your WordPress-based digital business presence and growing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you increase your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s objective is simple … turn more reds into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with the highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs like every other plugin. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to turn red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of great features to site owners. Here are just some:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays the latest stats from your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-update functionality. You can update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting. Reporting is very quickly, using very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, post type, or category.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have written about 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 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
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s 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 media marketing campaigns and shows you how and where 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 right from your WP dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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