Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 own 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single 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 the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that 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 half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can 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, 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 sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop 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.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, spy on your competition, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of campaigns, and spot new opportunities for engagement. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, businesses, brands, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including online reputation management companies, marketing teams, market research, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands so they can react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore many social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here for more details:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you track social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring plugin for your web presence and improving your social media exposure online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is simple … turn reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites over a period of three 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 were able to notice 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 can result in better search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to convert more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to web site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats right on your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal use of resources. Reporting is in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort 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 category, post authors, publishing date, 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials users have submitted for 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
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Plugin 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.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on one site only. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This license enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product is selling for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
Social Metrics Pro 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 media marketing campaigns and shows you how 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 WP dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing campaigns.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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