Social interactions like Facebook likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. 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 websites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of monthly 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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your 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, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search traffic and rankings. These include desirable and negative 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 not only important to grow 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 marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and market share, avert disasters, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and identify new market opportunities. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
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, typically carried out by various groups that include market researchers, marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many providers have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article on social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. For more info, see this article:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-powered sites for tracking social signals and improving your social media presence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is to turn all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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”. 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 result in better search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
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 Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Go To Work In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to change reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro 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 Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers site owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View updated information right on your WordPress admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal use of resources. Social reports are compiled very quickly, using very little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or by post type.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 change all the red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that users have written about 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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”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
Product Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license option lets you install Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This edition lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for the SocialMetricsPro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
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 marketing campaigns and shows you where 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 dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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