Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network in the world. It has been estimated that one great post can reach over 100,000 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 uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ 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 Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable 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 irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, identify market opportunities, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, businesses, brands, or topics.
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, often carried out by a cross-section of people including online reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing professionals, market researchers, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
If you want to learn more about social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about, see this article:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media presence online.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the tool tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your objective is to turn all the red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, more traffic and an increase in revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every other WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity from networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WP dashboard.
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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to website owners. Below we have listed just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to start using in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated stats from your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Utilizes very little resources. Social metrics reports are compiled fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, category, or by post authors.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are just some testimonials and comments that plugin users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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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”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
Plugin Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition lets you install SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the SocialMetricsPro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product is selling for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you where and how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which network are working for your business.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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