Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence 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 reliable ‘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 websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network in the world. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of 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 has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on GooglePlus each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- 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 URL has, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can 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 low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, spot opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
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 a cross-section of groups that include market research, marketing teams, PR staff, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed many tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Visit this page to learn more:
(Are you searching for an effective tool to help you track your social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the system measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is to turn all the reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Implement. Ready To Use In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to change more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WP users with a number of great features. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats from your WP admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal hosting resources use. The plugin generates social metrics reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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 simple to use … just change all the red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license lets you use SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
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 users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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