Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
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. Google’s own head of its 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 full ‘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 websites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media 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 community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person sharing your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount and authority of +1s, 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 factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, products, or company on social media, spot new market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, assess competitor activity, and be alerted to disasters. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social 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 PR staff, marketing teams, market research, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of service providers have developed tools that facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. To learn more about this go here:
(Can you measure your social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple social monitoring plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s objective is simple … change red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites 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”. 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, focusing on improving your social marketing can positively affect your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Here are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social activity from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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 Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers website owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information from your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your 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 page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal consumption of resources. Social metrics reports are compiled very quickly, consuming minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or by post authors.
- Export Data: 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just turn more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that customers have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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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
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license lets you run SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This option lets you install Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The 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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing campaigns or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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