Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, comments, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account various social signals to help determine a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence 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 the 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network in the world. 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 processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other 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 day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ 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 each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person sharing your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has amassed, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number 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 traffic and 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 irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, avert crises, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spy on your competition. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, 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 market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) specialists, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different providers have made available many affordable tools to facilitate the monitoring of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing a number of social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more information, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your task is to turn all the reds into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn all the 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 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”. 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Here are 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:
Installation Is Easy And Fast
Social Metrics Pro installs like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to turn red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity from networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with many unique features. Here are a few:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information from your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or category.
- Export Data: You can export filtered 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just turn reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials plugin users have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”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
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on all domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the Social Metrics Pro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product is selling for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing campaigns and shows you where to direct your efforts in order 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 WordPress dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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