Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media 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 short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses 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 second largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social 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 various 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 site has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious 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 improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and mind share, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, avert impending crises, and spot opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific products, businesses, brands, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to track social media channels like blogging, forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video/photo sharing websites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including market research, online reputation managers, marketing teams, sales teams, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of providers have created a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to react to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article on social media tracking tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more details:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple, yet effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media presence.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media presence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your job is simple … turn all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ sites 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can dramatically impact your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every other WP plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to change more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know where to apply more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track The Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to monitor social activity from social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social 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 is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to WP users. Here are just some of those features:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. Access updated information right on your WP admin bar, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal hosting resources consumption. Metric reports are compiled fast, consuming little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, category, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered 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 change all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials that users have written about the SocialMetricsPro 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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, complete refund guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on all the web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details:
Additional Plugin Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. 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 shows them where and how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save money on outsourcing your social marketing or train your staff to manage your campaigns in-house.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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