Social recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 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 most dominant social media network in the world. Research shows 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 online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus every week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your 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 likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competition, and spot opportunities for engagement. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social activity on social media channels like blogs, internet forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video sites, and user-generated content (UGC) 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 staff, market research, marketing professionals, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of service providers have made available affordable tools that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what is being said online about their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. Go here to learn more about this:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective social media tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is simple … convert all the red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro installs like any regular plugin. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity across leading social networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Digg, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress dashboard.
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 this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of features to WordPress users. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to use in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest information from your WP dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. You can update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Uses very little resources. Metric reports are generated very quickly, consuming very little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, category, post authors, or publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 more reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials plugin users have published 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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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation
SocialMetricsPro – Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the price at the time this article was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin 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 Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a website’s 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 users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social campaigns.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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