Social interactions like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media 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 social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘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 true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses social 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, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, GooglePlus 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 actively using Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has, amount and growth rate of +1s, 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 social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, spot market opportunities, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal 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 digital reputation specialists, market researchers, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about their brands or products so they can respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore many social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. More information:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective social tracking plugin for your website and increasing your social media exposure online.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures 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.
(A system that anyone can follow … 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 developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice 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, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to convert reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you track and monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers a number of features to WP users. Below we have listed just some:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows the latest stats from your WP dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reports are generated fast, using little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter data 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 post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just turn red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments plugin users have written about Social Metrics Pro:
”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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single site. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited web sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Plugin Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you how and where 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.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns in-house.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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