Social recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 social signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘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 sites 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 Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly 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 every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has amassed, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative 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 of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, identify market opportunities, avert disasters, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
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 a cross-section of groups that include marketing professionals, PR staff, market researchers, sales teams, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many providers have made available affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to identify consumer behavior around your products or brand allowing you to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about here:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and improving your social media presence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … change all reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand 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, improving your social marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to website owners. Here are some of those features:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats from your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Utilizes minimal server resources. The plugin generates reports fast, consuming very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or by category.
- Export Data: You can export data to 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change more reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just some testimonials plugin customers have submitted regarding the SocialMetricsPro 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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”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
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Our Recommendation
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing work for you.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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