Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines now take into account social signals to help determine website 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 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 full ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for 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 can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(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 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has amassed, number and authority of +1s, 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 factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competition, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social signal monitoring 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 digital reputation managers, market researchers, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and sales teams. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different service providers have developed many affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media measurement tools that are worth knowing about here:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you track social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple social monitoring plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media presence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make improving your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is to change all reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites 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”. From these tests, they were able to notice 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased web traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick Installation
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to convert more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many features. Here are just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information from your WP admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. Reporting is very quickly, using little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post authors, post type, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted 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 simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin users have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
“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)
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license lets you install SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This license option lets you use SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software developer 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 the latest pricing information:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Product
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. SocialMetricsPro 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 guides you where to direct your efforts in order 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 WordPress admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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