Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking 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 social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social community on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 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 business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, company, or brand on social media, spot market opportunities, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, and assess competitor activity. It can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social 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 market research, online reputation specialists, marketing teams, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and sales teams. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have made available tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. For more details, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
In this article, we review a simple social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your objective is to convert all the reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most 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 websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can positively impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro is really easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP admin area and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources use. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, category, post authors, or publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered data and custom queries to Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert all red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about the Social Metrics Pro 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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition lets you install SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This option allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on multiple websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the product sells for the pricing shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
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 strategy and shows you where to improve your 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 WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shorten your path to success with social media marketing.
For full details, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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