Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. 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 sites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community 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 ton of sales on your site, 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.
(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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ 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 GooglePlus every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media 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 various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, 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 indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business 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 and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, spot potential opportunities for engagement, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and assess competitor activity and mind share. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track social conversations and activity on social media channels like blogging, internet forums, social networking platforms, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., message boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content 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 groups that include marketing professionals, market research, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, social marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various providers have made available a range of tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about your brand or products allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing many social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business,etc. To learn more, visit this page:
(Do you know how to effectively track social signals?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet highly effective social media tracking plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … change more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and 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”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice 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 the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to change all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social activity from social networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
SocialMetricsPro 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 of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides web site owners with many great features. Below we have listed just some of those features:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information right on your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Uses very little resources. Metric reports are compiled very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post type, or post authors.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted for the Social Metrics Pro 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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”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
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on one domain only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was published. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software author when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Plugin Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides 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 WP dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social media marketing work for you.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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