Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account various social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of 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 assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great 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 importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second 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 on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, identify potential opportunities for engagement, be alerted to impending crises, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
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 people including online reputation management (ORM) companies, market researchers, marketing teams, professional sales reps, social marketing agencies, 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 digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of service providers have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article listing many social media measurement tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. More info:
(Can you monitor your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective social monitoring tool for your WordPress-based site and improving your social media presence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is to change all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WP admin area.
SocialMetricsPro 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 can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with a number of features. Here are a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated information right on your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Uses minimal resources. The plugin can generate social metrics reports fast, using very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter information however 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: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just change reds into greens!)
Testimonials From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Product License Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on 1 website only. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This option lets you install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking 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 campaigns and guides you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced 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 outperform your competitors on social media.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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