Social interactions like Facebook shares, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘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 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 look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential 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 Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes 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 rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and market share, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot opportunities for engagement, and be alerted to disasters. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, topics, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track social activity, trends, and volume and sentiments of online conversations on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including marketing professionals, online reputation managers, market researchers, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore many social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out. More information:
(Can you track social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet highly effective social tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use 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 concept – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s job is simple … change more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with the highest number of shares display 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 sites 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 were able to notice 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 the plugin developers, improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Installation Is Easy
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every other plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin user account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to convert reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social activity from networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to web site owners. Below we have listed some of those features:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information from your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. Update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new plugin updates are released.
- Low-resource consumption. Social reports are compiled in seconds, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or by publishing date.
- 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 really simple to use … just change all the red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are just some testimonials plugin customers have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.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
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This edition allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details here:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and guides you where 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 WordPress dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which social networks are working for your business.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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