Social recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 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 websites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search 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 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking 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 interacting on GooglePlus every week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has amassed, authority 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 indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, be alerted to disasters, spot opportunities for engagement, and spy on your competition. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content 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 marketing teams, market researchers, PR staff, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have created affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict consumer behavior around your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media tracking tools that you may want to check out here:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you increase your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is simple … change more red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Use. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to change more reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity from social media networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers a number of features to website owners. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to start using in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. View the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Minimal use of resources. Social reports are generated very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot data 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 turn reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have written about SocialMetricsPro:
“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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This option lets you install SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on all the websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for Social Metrics Pro 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 pricing charged by the product author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
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 site’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting better rankings on search engines.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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