Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals when determining a site’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than 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 social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a reliable ‘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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your site, 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, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest 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 importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social media site 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 GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include positive 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 website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track and analyze social media campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, be alerted to impending crises, spot market opportunities, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and spy on your competitors. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific products, brands, topics, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track social activity on social media channels like blogs, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Medium, etc., discussion groups, 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, often carried out by various groups that include digital reputation managers, market research, marketing teams, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various providers have made available affordable tools and solutions that facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, enabling companies to track what consumers are saying about their brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article listing over 30 social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. More info:
(Are you tracking your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to convert all red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin 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 their metrics on “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 marketing campaigns can result in higher search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social 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 Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides website owners with many great features. Here are some of those features:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated information right on your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin generates reports very quickly, using minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server resources consumed when gathering data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post authors, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export and plot data 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 really simple to use … just convert all red squares into greens!)
Testimonials From Product Customers
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Useful Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
The plugin is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product License Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software seller when you visit the plugin 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
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
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. Social Metrics Pro 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 how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to shorten your path to success with social marketing.
For more details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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