Social recommendations like Facebook shares, comments, and likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the increase in importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google now take into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 own 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 reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals 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 websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook 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 the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers 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, GooglePlus 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 starting to interact socially on Google+ every year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, the number of people sharing the URL, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has, amount and growth rate of +1s, 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 factors that can indirectly influence search 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 irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on the competition, spot opportunities for engagement, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, businesses, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor trends, conversations, and activity on 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 groups that include market researchers, marketing professionals, digital reputation specialists, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your brand so you can react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore many social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. More info:
(Are you tracking your social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is simple … convert red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand 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 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can dramatically can have a significant impact on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Easy, Quick And Simple To Install
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many great features to WordPress users. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated information right on your WP dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. Social reports are generated fast, consuming minimal server resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources used to compile the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries in 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 turn all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials that customers have submitted regarding Social Metrics Pro:
”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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
A step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Product License Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This option allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this content was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software developer when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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