Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
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. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts 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 too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social 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 largest social community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, identify potential market opportunities, avert impending crises, spy on the competition, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market researchers, marketing professionals, online reputation specialists, social media marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many providers have made available a range of tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing a number of social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. More information:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective social media tracking plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s job is simple … change all reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three 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 noticed that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to change all the reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns require more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns 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 this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with many great features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated stats from your WP admin bar, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrading functionality. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. Social reports are compiled fast, using minimal server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, category, or by post authors.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Product Users
Here are some of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided for 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)
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This lets you activate SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the increase in importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account a range of social signals to help determine website 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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro 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 SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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