Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, 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 sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential 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, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- 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 site has, how influential the person sharing your URL is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a web page has, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track 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 your company’s online visibility on social media, identify new market opportunities, assess competitor activity, measure the impact of campaigns, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including digital reputation specialists, marketing teams, market researchers, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and social marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to track what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying 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 to learn more:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is to convert all red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro 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”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 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 media marketing can dramatically affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed 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 website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs like every other WP plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WP administrator account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to turn all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity from networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro 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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many unique features to WP users. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information right on your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin uses very little hosting resources. Reporting is in seconds, consuming little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries to 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just turn more red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback that customers have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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
Product Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This option enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase the Social Metrics Pro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro 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 elevating the importance given to 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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides 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 directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns in-house.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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