Social recommendations like Facebook shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media 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 the 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 can change at a moment’s notice. Without a reliable ‘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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook 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 the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes 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 Twitter orGooglePlus.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion 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 number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus 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, StumbleUpon,Reddit, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search 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 shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, how influential the person sharing the information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has accrued, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can 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 of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, avert crises, measure the impact of campaigns, spy on the competition, and spot market opportunities. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of groups that include marketing teams, market researchers, online reputation management (ORM) specialists, sales teams, social engagement and community personnel, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of technology companies have developed many tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify what customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about your products or brand so you can react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools and technologies that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives here:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet highly effective social media tracking plugin for your WordPress-based online presence and improving your social media exposure.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is to convert reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity are colored 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”. 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, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in better search engine rankings, more web traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to convert all the red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Choose Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WP 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 SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WP users with a number of features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View updated information from your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin generates reports fast, consuming minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, category, publishing date, or by post authors.
- 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just convert all the red squares into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about SocialMetricsPro:
“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 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
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option lets you install SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This enables you to install Social Metrics Pro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the Social Metrics Pro product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software sells for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account various 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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and guides them where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress 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 complete details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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