Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 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 social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of 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: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive 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 visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot market opportunities, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, measure the impact of campaigns, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor social media channels like blogs, forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, 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 a cross-section of people including market researchers, PR staff, marketing teams, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various providers have created tools to facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article listing many social media measurement tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here for more information:
(Are you searching for an effective tool to help you measure your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social media monitoring plugin for a WordPress-based web presence and increasing your social media exposure.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you improve your social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … convert all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 everything “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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can significantly affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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 sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers site owners with many features. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Utilizes minimal resources. Metric reports are generated very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries 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 really simple to use … just change reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback users have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Useful Tips
A step-by-step, 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.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product License Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license lets you run Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This option lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the Social Metrics Pro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and 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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress 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 learn how to use social signals to improve your search rankings.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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