Social recommendations like Facebook shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, 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 naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other 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 every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has accrued, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, be alerted to crises, identify new market opportunities, and spy on your competition. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including marketing teams, market researchers, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed many tools that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to track what is being said online about your brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing over 30 social media measurement tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. More info:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective social media monitoring tool for WordPress and improving your social media presence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users grow their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s job is to convert all the reds into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … turn 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 display amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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 were able to notice 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides website owners with many features. Here are just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Uses very little server resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or publishing date.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials customers have submitted regarding the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.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
Useful Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for the SocialMetricsPro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
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 the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro 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 guides you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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