Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines have started taking into account various social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, 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 largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site 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 actively using Google+ every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify market opportunities, assess competitor activity and market dominance, and help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, products, 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, typically carried out by a cross-section of people including digital reputation management companies, marketing teams, market researchers, social engagement and community personnel, professional sales reps, and agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have made available many tools that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, supporters, and critics are saying about their products or brands so they can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have created a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that you may want to check out. More information:
(Do you know how to effectively measure social signals?)
This article discusses a simple social media tracking plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you improve your social media exposure in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is to change more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any user can operate … simply 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 are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three 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 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 Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any plugin. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP admin area.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides site owners with many unique features. Here are just some of those features:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to use in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated stats from your WP dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Consumes minimal server resources. The plugin can generate reports in seconds, consuming very little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter data 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 authors, or by post type.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just turn all the red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback that plugin customers have provided for SocialMetricsPro:
”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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”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
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This option allows you to install SocialMetricsPro on 1 web site only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This license option lets you install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the plugin site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them where to direct their efforts in order 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 WP admin area.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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