Social interactions like Facebook likes, comments, and shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account a range of social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media 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 too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media 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 influential social network on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly 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 day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant 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 track and analyze social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, be alerted to crises, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spot new opportunities for engagement. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media signal monitoring 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 market research, online reputation management companies, marketing professionals, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many technology providers have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media monitoring tools and technologies that you may want to check out here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media exposure.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is simple … change all red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display 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 their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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, improving your social marketing can can have a significant effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to change all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated information right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal use of server resources. The plugin can generate reports fast, using very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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 turn more red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback customers have submitted for 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This license option enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on multiple domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The price of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be 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.
The Bottom Line
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 the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and guides them how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing campaigns work for you.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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