Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 websites that provide true value tend to 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 sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site 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 starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has accrued, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable 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 irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow 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.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, avert crises, spy on your competitors, and identify opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific brands, businesses, products, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media channels like blogs, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, message boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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 online reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing teams, market research, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and sales teams. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their products or brands so they can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore a number of social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. See this page for more information:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs for monitoring social signals and improving your social media presence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is simple … change all reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. 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 2,000+ websites over a period of 3 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 were able to notice 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is very 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 task is to change all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to website owners. Below we have listed some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to use in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-upgrade functionality. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Utilizes very little resources. Metric reports are compiled very quickly, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also display 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 allows you to sort, search and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or post type.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries to 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 convert all red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This edition allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. 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 strategy and guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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