Social interactions like Facebook shares, likes, and comments, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social media community on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that 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 largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(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 track a number of social signals, including:
- 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 web page has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has accrued, amount of adds and shares, 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 social media-related factors 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 visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and market dominance, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, identify potential market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social media 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 online reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market research, social marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media monitoring tools that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that can affect your business, etc, see what conversations are taking place online that could affect your business,etc. For more info, see this article:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you track your social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs for tracking social signals and growing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is simple … convert all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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”. From these tests, 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 the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can significantly can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to turn all red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track The Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Digg, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- 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 provides a number of great features to website owners. Below we have listed some:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to use in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro displays the latest information from your WP dashboard, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Plugin suits even the smallest hosting configuration. Social reports are compiled very quickly, consuming very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export data to 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 all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials that customers have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license option enables you to use Social Metrics Pro on all the sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
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 the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro 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 where and how to improve your 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 admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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