Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
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 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 websites that provide real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of 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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking 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 Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, the authority of the person sharing your URL, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, identify new market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, be alerted to crises, and spy on the competition. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, products, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media signal 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 research, marketing teams, PR staff, social marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed a range of tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. More info:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet effective WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s objective is to convert more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn all the 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 display amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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 everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in better search engine rankings, increased web traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Installation Is Easy, Simple And Quick
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WP plugin. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress admin area.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides web site owners with many features. Here are some:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin uses very little resources. The plugin generates reports fast, using little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries 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 very simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have submitted regarding 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
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This lets you install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This license enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the product author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 marketing strategy and shows you how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to measure your social marketing results professionally.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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