Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, comments, and shares, 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 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 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 more importance to social signals 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 value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. Research shows that a single post on Facebook 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 Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining 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 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 every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social 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 interacting on GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, the authority of the person sharing your information, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has amassed, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, services, or brand on social media, be alerted to crises, assess competitor activity and mind share, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and identify potential market opportunities. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, topics, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media 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 people including market researchers, marketing professionals, online reputation management companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and social marketing agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, allowing you to identify what is being said online about your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet highly effective social tracking tool for a WordPress-based online business and increasing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s objective is simple … change more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro 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 everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WP plugin. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s job is to change reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity from social networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers web site owners with many great features. Below we have listed a few:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in very little time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access updated information right on your WordPress dashboard, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports fast, using minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, post authors, or by category.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data 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 really simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Customers
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments customers have submitted for the SocialMetricsPro 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
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This enables you to set up Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for the Social Metrics Pro software can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the product seller when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s 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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you how to direct your efforts in order 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 WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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