Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, likes, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media 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 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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that one great 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 online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones 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 you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – 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 Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive 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 business owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media 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 brand, products, or company on social media, identify market opportunities, avert impending crises, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and assess competitor activity and mind share. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, market researchers, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology providers have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article where we explore a number of social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. More info:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites and blogs for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your task is simple … turn all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with the highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to convert all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity from social networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are some of those features:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Ready to go to work in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses minimal server resources. Reporting is very quickly, using minimal server resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter the information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or by post authors.
- 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 very simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Customers
Here are a few of the testimonials and feedback users have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”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)
Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This option allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the SocialMetricsPro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the product is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Product
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking 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 and how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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