Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence 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 web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, 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 value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence 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 each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include desirable 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 site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only 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 results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, identify market opportunities, spy on the competition, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor social media 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 marketing professionals, online reputation managers, market researchers, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of service providers have made available affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more:
(Are you searching for an effective way to monitor social signals?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress websites for tracking social media signals and improving your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make increasing your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is to convert all the red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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 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 campaigns can significantly impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to WP users. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Ready to start using in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting configuration. Social metrics reports are compiled in seconds, using minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the 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 and plot data in 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 simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials that customers have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”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
Product Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This edition enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the Social Metrics Pro product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and shows you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your social media marketing learning curve.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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