Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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. 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 so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘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 to “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 naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community on the planet. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes 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 biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has accrued, amount of adds and shares, 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 signals that can indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, spot market opportunities, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of campaigns, and help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific brands, products, topics, or businesses.
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 groups that include marketing teams, online reputation management companies, market researchers, social media marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many providers have created affordable tools that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
If you want to learn more about social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about, refer to this article:
(Are you searching for an effective way to measure social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media presence.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is to change all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. 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 2,000+ sites 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 a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to convert all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn directly from your WP admin area.
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 this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many features. Here are a few:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Utilizes minimal server resources. Reports are generated very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search 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, publishing date, or by category.
- 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 simple to use … just change all the red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a few of the testimonials users have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step 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.
Plugin Support
The plugin 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.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on all the websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
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.
We Highly Recommend This
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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and shows them how and where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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