Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and 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 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 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus 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 month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as influential 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 not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, spy on your competitors, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, spot potential opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, topics, products, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, 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 groups that include PR staff, marketing teams, market research, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and social marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have made available affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing several social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. See this page to learn more:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media tracking plugin for your digital business presence and increasing your social media influence.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is to change all the red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display 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”. 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, focusing on improving your social media marketing can positively can have a dramatic impact on your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like any regular WP plugin. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to change more reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social activity from social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to site owners. Below we have listed some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated information from your WP dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click updates. You can update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reporting is very quickly, using very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, publishing date, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback that users have submitted regarding the SocialMetricsPro 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This license lets you use SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was current when this review was published. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
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 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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your path to success with social marketing.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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