Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts 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 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 sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. It has been estimated that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on 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, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search 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 each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site 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 actively using Google+ each week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate 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 and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or products on social media, spy on the competition, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, spot new market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
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, typically carried out by various groups that include marketing professionals, market research, online reputation management companies, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of providers have created tools and solutions that facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands allowing them to react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
If you want to learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that can affect your business,etc, refer to this article:
(Are you looking for an effective tool that can help you monitor your social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet effective social media tracking plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media presence.
Our Featured WordPress Product Is …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. Your goal is simple … change more reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can follow … turn all the 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 and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search rankings, increased traffic and increased revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to convert all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns need you to invest more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Track Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity from networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
Social Metrics Pro 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers a number of features to website owners. Here are some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated information right on your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click updates. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses very little hosting resources. Metric reports are generated fast, using very little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered, sorted 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Users
Below are just a few of the testimonials and comments customers have submitted regarding the Social Metrics Pro 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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”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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Plugin Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one website only. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This license option lets you run SocialMetricsPro on all the sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades 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 retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the product developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Plugin
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 users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to see measurable results.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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