Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 full ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
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 interacting on GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable 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 of poor quality by other users [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 media marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, spot opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media monitoring 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 market research, marketing teams, digital reputation specialists, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have made available a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling you to identify what is being said online about your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more:
(Are you looking for an effective way to measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-powered sites for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your task is to convert more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any user can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can dramatically impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Configure. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every plugin. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your admin user section and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to turn all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from social media networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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 this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many unique features to WP users. Below we have listed some of those features:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View the latest stats right on your WP admin bar, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-updating functionality. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of server resources. Reporting is fast, using very little hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or by post type.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just change more reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin customers have submitted regarding SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”Social Metrics is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Plugin Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on 1 web site only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This license option lets you use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for SocialMetricsPro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the product developer 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.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account social signals to help determine a site’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 immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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