Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, +1s on Google+, 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 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social network 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, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website 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 each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(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 Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person sharing your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – 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 StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, be alerted to disasters, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competitors, and spot potential opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, brands, topics, 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, often carried out by a cross-section of people including digital reputation management companies, marketing professionals, market researchers, professional sales reps, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller 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 companies have developed a range of tools to facilitate the tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about their brands or products allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing over 30 social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. More information:
(Are you measuring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social signals and improving your social media presence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn all the red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro 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 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Easy Installation
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change all red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many unique features to website owners. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to go to work in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses minimal resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, using very little hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post type, publishing date, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials customers have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Social Metrics Pro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option lets you install Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on all domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information here:
Additional Plugin Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine website 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you where and how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized social campaigns.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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