Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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 web spam team 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 the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. Research shows that an average post 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 power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(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 single 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media 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 Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing the URL is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 traffic and rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity, measure the impact of campaigns, identify potential market opportunities, and avert crises. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
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 a cross-section of groups that include online reputation managers, marketing teams, market researchers, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of providers have created affordable tools to facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about here:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to make improving your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is to change all reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most are colored 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 three 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Use In No Time
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides a number of great features to site owners. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information right on your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal server resources consumption. Social reports are compiled fast, using minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, post authors, or category.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just change reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted regarding the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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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 – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on one domain only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This license allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on all sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the SocialMetricsPro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the plugin sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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