Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. It has been estimated that one great post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online 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 second biggest 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 half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(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?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, 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 followers on Google+ a web page has accrued, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 signals that can influence search traffic and rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (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 business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, assess competitor activity, identify market opportunities, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, businesses, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of service providers have developed tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify what consumers are saying about their brands or products allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Are you looking for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your job is to convert reds into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares 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 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”. From these tests, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity from networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WordPress users with many features. Below we have listed some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update the plugin with 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.
- Plugin uses very little hosting resources. Social metrics reports are generated in seconds, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or by post type.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments customers have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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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)
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to use SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This license enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was published. This may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro 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 campaigns and guides you where and how 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 right from your WordPress admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shave years off your social media marketing learning curve.
For more details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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