Social recommendations like Facebook comments, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’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. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. 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 to “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 look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community in the world. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second 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 on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries a significant degree of 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 each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending tweets is, 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, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search engine traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on your competition, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social 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 marketing teams, digital reputation management companies, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. If you are interested in learning more here:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and growing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s objective is to change all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can operate … simply 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 show up amber and 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”. From these tests, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your admin account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to convert more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WordPress users with a number of features. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated information right on your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses minimal resources. Reporting is very quickly, using very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments plugin users have submitted for 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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This license option allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on all the sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Product
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 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 website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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