Social recommendations like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. Research shows 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, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites.
(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 single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, 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?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, spy on the competition, measure the impact of campaigns, and identify opportunities for engagement. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, products, topics, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 marketing professionals, market researchers, online reputation management companies, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. To learn more, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social signals and increasing your social media presence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your task is to convert reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand 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”. 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every other plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to turn all red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many great features to site owners. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to use in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Low-resource consumption. Reporting is fast, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also display the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, category, or publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries to 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Customers
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin customers have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you where and how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social media campaigns.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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