Social recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media 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 social signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 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 Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your 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 engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
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 Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones 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, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has accrued, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, assess competitor activity and market dominance, identify market opportunities, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social 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 people including marketing teams, market research, online reputation management companies, social media marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to track what consumers are saying about their products or brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a comprehensive article where we explore many social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. Visit this page to learn more:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is to convert red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ sites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Really Easy To Install
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to convert all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity from social media networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to site owners. Below we have listed just some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and use. 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 updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-update functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Uses minimal resources. Social reports are compiled fast, consuming little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro 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, post type, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered, sorted 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback customers have submitted regarding the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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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
Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This edition lets you install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to monitor which network are working for your business.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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