Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook 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 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 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 reliable ‘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 a sensible one - “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 websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post can reach up to 150,000 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 data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGoogle+.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could 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. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. 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 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 business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, avert disasters, spot opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity and mind share, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
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 various people including PR staff, marketing teams, market research, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have created many affordable tools that facilitate the monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to identify what customers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article listing over 30 social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. More information:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet effective social tracking plugin for WordPress and improving your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – the tool tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your task is to turn all the red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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 everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 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 marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to change all the reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity across leading networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides a number of great features to WP users. Here are just some of those features:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Ready to use in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated information from your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. You can update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Minimal consumption of server resources. Reporting is fast, using little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just turn more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are just some testimonials that plugin customers have submitted regarding SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Social Metrics Pro – Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This option enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This license option allows you to use Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this review was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and guides you how and 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 right from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which network are working for your business.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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