Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various social signals to help determine website 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. 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 too much 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 websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social community on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social 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 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing your information, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has amassed, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. 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 website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, spot new opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by embittered customers. It can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, social media signal 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 marketing professionals, market research, online reputation management (ORM) companies, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed tools that facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
Go here to learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that you may want to check out:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media presence.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your goal is simple … turn more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can operate … 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 show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of 3 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 that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 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 can significantly affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Use. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to convert all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally track and monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
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?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many features to WP users. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats from your WP dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Uses very little hosting resources. Reporting is fast, using minimal server resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter 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 post type, publishing date, category, or post authors.
- 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 really simple to use … just turn reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments that users have published about the Social Metrics Pro 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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”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
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical, step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on 1 web site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on all web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The pricing shown above was correct when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get 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 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 media marketing campaigns and guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to track your social signals automatically.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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