Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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. Google’s own head of its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, 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 sites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that one great post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, don’t 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 influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has accrued, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, assess competitor activity and market share, measure the impact of campaigns, and be alerted to disasters. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, 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 teams, market researchers, PR staff, sales teams, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, small businesses do not 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 companies have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify what is being said online about your brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore over 30 social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. For more details, go here:
(Are you tracking your social signals effectively?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple social tracking tool for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media presence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … change all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. From these tests, they were able to notice 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 can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Very Easy To Install
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every other plugin. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP admin login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to change reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WP admin area.
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 on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all 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!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers a number of great features to website owners. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access updated stats right on your WP dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update the plugin with one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal usage of hosting resources. Metric reports are generated fast, consuming very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter information as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post type, publishing date, or by post authors.
- Export Data: 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 really simple to use … just turn all the red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials and comments that plugin 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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”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
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This option allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was correct when this review was published. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller 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 latest price:
Additional Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account various social signals when determining website ranking.
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 immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social campaigns.
For more details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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