Social recommendations like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account a range of social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
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. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social community on the planet. Research shows that a single post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not 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 active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest 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 emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ 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 every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the number of people sharing the URL, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has amassed, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
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, identify new opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
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, often carried out by a cross-section of people including digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, marketing professionals, market researchers, social media marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various providers have made available many affordable tools that facilitate the active tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand or products so you can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article listing many social media measurement tools that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business,etc. More info:
(Are you measuring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet effective social tracking plugin for your digital presence and growing your social media influence online.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is to turn more red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn 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 plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 their metrics on “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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro installs like any plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to convert more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many great features to website owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest information right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses very little hosting resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, using little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post authors, or 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have provided for 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer when you visit the website and you may be shown 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.
In Conclusion
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. SocialMetricsPro 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 campaigns and shows you how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced 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 outperform your competitors on social media.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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