Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, 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 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 websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
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 influential social media network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus 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 month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, measure the impact of campaigns, and assess competitor activity. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 groups that include market researchers, digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media monitoring tools that are worth knowing about. Go here for more details:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your objective is simple … turn all reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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”. From these tests, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can can have a dramatic effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any regular plugin. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Track Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to centrally track and monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media 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 a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with many unique features. Below we have listed some:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. Reporting is in seconds, using little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and comments customers have provided for the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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”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
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Licensing Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on multiple websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy 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.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized social media campaigns.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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