Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account social signals to help determine a site’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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries great 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 GooglePlus every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your 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 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 tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable 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 irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on the competition, be alerted to crises, and spot opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor social media 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 people including marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, market research, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed many tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools that you may want to check out here:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you measure social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s task is simple … convert more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand 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”. 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to convert red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP admin area.
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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides site owners with a number of features. Here are some of those:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access updated information right on your WP admin bar, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Minimal use of server resources. The plugin can generate reports fast, using minimal hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather and compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post type, publishing date, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials and comments that customers have written about Social Metrics Pro:
“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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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on 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 upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition lets you install Social Metrics Pro on one domain only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This license allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on all web sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the software retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product author when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and guides you where and how to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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