Social interactions like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account 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. 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 too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community in the world. It has been estimated that an average 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 website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of 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 tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, 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?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your URL has, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. 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 of low quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, avert crises, spot opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media channels like blogs, internet forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include online reputation management companies, market researchers, marketing teams, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have made available tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article listing a number of social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here for more details:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media presence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the tool tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is to turn all the reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares display 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+ 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like any plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to change reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro 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 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 social media sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to website owners. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated information from your WP admin bar, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. The plugin can generate social metrics reports in seconds, using very little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, category, or by post type.
- 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 very simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.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)
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on 1 domain only. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current when this content was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social media marketing campaigns work for you.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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