Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each 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 single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your 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 shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, spread rate 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 influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and market dominance, identify opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media channels like blogs, internet forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., message boards, video sites, and user-generated content 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 researchers, marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, agencies, professional sales reps, 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 media.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their products or brands so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media measurement tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. For more details:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor social signals?)
This article explores a simple social media tracking plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … change more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up 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 everything “green”. From these tests, 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to convert all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know where to put more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity from social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Digg, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers site owners with many great features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick 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 using built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated stats from your WP admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal usage of resources. Reporting is very quickly, using very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or 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 really simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that customers have written about SocialMetricsPro:
“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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”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 – Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on multiple websites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the product seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them where 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 WordPress admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social marketing campaigns.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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