Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a site’s 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own 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 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 naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
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 influential social network on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, don’t 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, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using Google+ each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing your posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, measure the impact of campaigns, spot market opportunities, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, products, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social media monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include marketing teams, market researchers, PR companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed a range of tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their brands or products allowing them to respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article about social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here to learn more about this:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple, yet highly effective social media monitoring tool for WordPress and increasing your social media presence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure 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 objective is to change all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … 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 display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro 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 their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 the plugin developers, improving your social marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, more traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your administrator login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to turn all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress dashboard.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to WordPress users. Here are some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats from your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Minimal hosting resources usage. The plugin generates reports very quickly, consuming little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter your data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, category, or by publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 very simple to use … just convert all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Customers
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”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 is one of the recipes for Social WordPress. You can integrate it quickly and easily on your WordPress site to view your performance on social networks” Jean-Francois Arseneault, Arseneault Consultation (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin 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.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This license allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on multiple websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was current at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. 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 shows you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
Get this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social media marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
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