Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘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 websites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, 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 to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly 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 day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers 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 networking site naturally carries a significant degree of 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+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has amassed, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot potential market opportunities, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, measure the impact of campaigns, and assess competitor activity and mind share. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track volume and sentiments of social conversations and activity on social media 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 digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, marketing professionals, market research, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology providers have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their products or brands so they can respond to conversations and interact with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. See this page to learn more:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you track your social signals?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring tool for WordPress and increasing your social media presence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is simple … change all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ sites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can positively can have a positive effect on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to convert all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP admin area.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers website owners with a number of features. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to start using in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View the latest information right on your WP admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Plugin uses minimal hosting resources. The plugin generates reports in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post authors, publishing date, or by 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials plugin customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
“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
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on 1 web site only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This option allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product author 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.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account various social signals to help determine website ranking.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and guides you where and how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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