Social interactions like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. 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 true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online 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.
(Number of monthly 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 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+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [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 develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, spot market opportunities, spy on the competition, and be alerted to crises. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include market research, digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling you to identify what consumers are saying about your brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article about social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more about this:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Our Featured WordPress Product Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is to turn more reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 media marketing can significantly can have a dramatic effect on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to turn all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides website owners with a number of features. Here are some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal consumption of server resources. Reporting is very quickly, using little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search 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, category, post type, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered 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 very simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that plugin 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 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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This option lets you install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This option allows you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author 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 pricing here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
For more details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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