Social interactions like Facebook comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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 short, 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 websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media 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 network on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 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 engine rankings of all social media sites.
(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 each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere 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+
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 actively using Google+ each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, spy on your competitors, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring 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 PR staff, marketing professionals, market researchers, sales teams, social engagement and community staff, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed affordable tools that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
Go here for a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that affect your business, etc, see what conversations are taking place online that can affect your business,etc:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you monitor social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-powered websites for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence 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. The site owner’s goal is to convert more reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ websites 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”. According to the plugin developers, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs just like any plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress 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 of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides site owners with many features. Below we have listed a few:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reports are generated in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post type, publishing date, or post authors.
- Export Data: You can export data 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials that customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro 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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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This license lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License Edition – This edition lets you run Social Metrics Pro on multiple web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current price when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you how and where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing campaigns work for you.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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