Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than 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 too much importance to social signals 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 tend to 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 and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network on the planet. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses 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, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(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 online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of 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+ every year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social 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 various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing your posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has accrued, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 factors that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant 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 important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spy on the competition, measure the impact of campaigns, spot market opportunities, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by embittered customers. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social media channels like blogging, internet forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Quora, etc., discussion boards, video 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 various people including market researchers, marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various service providers have developed tools that facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. Go here to learn more:
(Can you monitor social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media tracking plugin for your online presence and increasing your social media exposure.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is to change all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in better search rankings, more web traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like any WP plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to convert more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to centrally monitor social activity across leading networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides web site owners with many features. Below we have listed some:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest information right on your WP admin bar, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal usage of server resources. Social reports are generated in seconds, using very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search 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 type, publishing date, post authors, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot data in 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 very simple to use … just turn all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials users have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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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
Plugin Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This edition enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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