Social recommendations like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social 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 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 websites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social community on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 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 online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 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 great value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [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 presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor 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 what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of campaigns, spot opportunities for engagement, and spy on the competition. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social activity, trends, and conversations on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include marketing teams, online reputation management (ORM) specialists, market researchers, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article listing several social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here for more information:
(Are you looking for an effective way to track social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use 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 premise – the tool tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your goal is to convert all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every other plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user account and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to change all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns need more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Digg, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts 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 a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WP users with many features. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated stats from your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro in one 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.
- Consumes very little resources. Reporting is very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or publishing date.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
“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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on one site only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Plugin Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account various social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro 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 how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to use social signals to get better search rankings.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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