Social interactions like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to 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, rather than 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 social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. 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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest 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 importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume 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 great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has amassed, 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 signals that can influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify potential opportunities for engagement, spy on the competition, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
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, often carried out by various people including marketing professionals, market research, online reputation specialists, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore a number of social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. For more information, go here:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective social tracking tool for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Our Featured WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media presence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the plugin tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is simple … convert more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn 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 Social Metrics Pro 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Really Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to convert reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns require investing more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity across leading networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with many great features. Below we have listed just some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated stats from your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting configuration. Metric reports are generated fast, using very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, category, or 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that plugin users have written 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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”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
SocialMetricsPro includes a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This edition enables you to set up SocialMetricsPro on a single site. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License Edition – This license option lets you use SocialMetricsPro on unlimited web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them how and where to improve their 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 admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social media campaigns or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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