Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 sites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that an average 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 site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other 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 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including the following:
- 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 a URL has, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has amassed, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, identify potential market opportunities, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, spy on the competition, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
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, typically carried out by various people including market researchers, digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology providers have developed many affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore many social media measurement tools that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that can affect your business,etc. More info:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Our Featured WordPress Product Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is to change all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In No Time
SocialMetricsPro installs like every WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to turn all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to web site owners. Here are just some:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated information from your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Minimal server resources use. Reporting is in seconds, consuming very little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Product Users
Here are a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided 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 is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This license option allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing above was current at the time this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them where 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 directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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