Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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 social signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of 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 rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of 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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social 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 likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing your URL is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, 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 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 site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, spy on the competition, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, spot opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think 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 digital reputation specialists, market research, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various service providers have created a range of affordable and even free tools to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. To learn more about this go here:
(Are you searching for an effective way to monitor social signals?)
This article explores a simple social media monitoring tool for WordPress and increasing your social media presence online.
Announcing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you increase your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your job is to turn all red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner 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 show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. From these tests, they were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity across leading networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers website owners with a number of great features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated stats from your WP dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin generates reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search 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, post type, or category.
- Export Data: 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product 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, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing above was correct when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to learn how to use social signals to get better search rankings.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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