Social recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account 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 web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. 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 short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network on the planet. Research shows that an average 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 business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(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 has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. 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 other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, assess competitor activity and mind share, and take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by embittered customers. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor social media channels like blogging, internet forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, message boards, video sites, and user-generated content 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 marketing professionals, market research, online reputation management (ORM) specialists, social engagement and community staff, social marketing agencies, and sales teams. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of providers have made available affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their products or brands allowing them to respond to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article where we explore several social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. For more information, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor your social signals?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media influence.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the tool measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s objective is to convert reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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”. 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly impact your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Learn more here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are 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 Easy To Install And Configure. Ready To Go To Work In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WordPress plugin. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user account and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro 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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WordPress users with a number of great features. Below we have listed some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information from your WordPress dashboard, display socially popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. You can 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.
- Low-resource consumption. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, category, or by post type.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot data 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a few of the testimonials and feedback customers have submitted for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition allows you to set up Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This allows you to set up SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account a range of social signals to help determine website ranking.
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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social marketing campaigns or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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