Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social 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 reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more 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 real 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 media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not 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 shows that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of 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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social 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 interacting on GooglePlus every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites 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 could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments 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 rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social media performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on the competition, and identify opportunities for engagement. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor social media channels like blogs, internet forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., discussion groups, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content 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 people including digital reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market researchers, sales teams, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed many tools that facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here to learn more:
(Are you tracking your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet effective social monitoring plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your task is to change all the red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites 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”. 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 marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Very Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro installs like every WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WordPress users with many unique features. Below we have listed a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Plugin uses very little server resources. The plugin can generate social metrics reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the information however 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 post type.
- Export Data: 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 convert red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that customers have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
“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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (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 no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This lets you install SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product 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 the latest pricing information here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals to help determine a site’s 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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized social media marketing campaigns.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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