Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, comments, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their brand on social media as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere 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 sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signals – Which Social Media Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network on the planet. Research shows that one great post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of monthly 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 every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
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 Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites 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 sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your URL has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, number and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, identify market opportunities, assess competitor activity and market dominance, measure the impact of campaigns, and avert crises. It can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific businesses, brands, topics, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track social media channels like blogs, forums, social networking platforms, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., message boards, video 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 a cross-section of people including market research, online reputation management (ORM) companies, marketing professionals, professional sales reps, agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have created affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what consumers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about their brands allowing them to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article about social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. Go here to learn more:
(Are you searching for an effective way to measure social signals?)
In this article, we look at a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media exposure online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … convert all red squares into greens.
(A system that any user can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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”. From these tests, they noticed a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure. Ready To Use In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like every WordPress plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert reds 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 where to optimize.
Track Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you centrally monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 actively tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
SocialMetricsPro offers many features to WP users. Below we have listed just some of these features:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. View the latest stats right on your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click updating. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Low-resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports in seconds, consuming little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro 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 authors, post type, publishing date, or category.
- 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 very simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback plugin customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro 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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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Product Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This license option enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Licensing – This enables you to install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Current pricing for the SocialMetricsPro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual price set by the product seller when you visit the website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine website ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and shows them how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro 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 Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social media marketing measurable.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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