Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, likes, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, 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 sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses 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.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest 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 tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social 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 Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sharing your posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has amassed, spread rate 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 signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative 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 of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, be alerted to crises, spot new market opportunities, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and assess competitor activity. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, businesses, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track volume and sentiments of social conversations and social activity on social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including online reputation management companies, marketing teams, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of providers have made available affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more about this:
(Are you searching for an effective tool to help you measure your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media presence.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … change more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 their metrics on “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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs like every plugin. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to change red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns need you to invest more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest 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 posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WordPress users with a number of features. Here are some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest stats right on your WordPress admin bar, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-update functionality. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Utilizes minimal hosting resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering 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 post authors, post type, publishing date, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 really simple to use … just turn all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials customers have submitted regarding SocialMetricsPro:
”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 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
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition lets you install SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This option enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current when this review was published. This may not be the actual price set by the software seller 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 pricing:
Additional Plugin Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social marketing work for you.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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