Social recommendations like Facebook likes, Twitter retweets and mentions, 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 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. 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 so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘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 websites that provide value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses 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 plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
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 Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
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, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – 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. 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 signals that can influence search rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, avert crises, spot market opportunities, and assess competitor activity. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track activity, trends, and volume and sentiments of social conversations on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market researchers, marketing teams, PR companies, social media marketing agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media measurement tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. Go here to learn more:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple, yet effective WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users grow their social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s task is to change all the red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or 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 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can positively can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to turn all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns need more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social activity across leading networks like Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Pinterest, Digg, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn directly from your WordPress admin area.
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 this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to website owners. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to use in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest information right on your WP admin bar, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click updating. Update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when a new version is released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, consuming minimal hosting resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or by publishing date.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have submitted for 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 guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on 1 domain only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This option lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on all domains that you own. It includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software retails for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price charged by the software developer when you visit the plugin site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details:
Additional Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get The Product
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing measurable.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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