Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account various social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence 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 signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘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 value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signal Sources
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 most dominant social network on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next 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 importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(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 include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search engine traffic. 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 irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot market opportunities, spy on your competition, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, products, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, 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 groups that include PR companies, marketing teams, market research, sales teams, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of service providers have developed tools that facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out here:
(Are you looking for an effective way to monitor your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media presence.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to turn more reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares 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 three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “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 campaigns can positively affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick & Easy Installation
SocialMetricsPro installs like every other plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your admin area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
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 this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides a number of great features to site owners. Below we have listed some:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Ready to use in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View the latest information from your WP admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin uses very little server resources. Reporting is in seconds, using very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, 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 really simple to use … just convert more reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments that plugin customers have provided for the SocialMetricsPro 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
***
”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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
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 how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and guides you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to outperform your competitors on social media.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
***
***