Social interactions like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook shares, likes, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence 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 the 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 perfect ‘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 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 display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social 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 influential social media network on the planet. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 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 uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social 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 actively using Google+ each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people follow you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, 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 engine traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as important as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, assess competitor activity, measure the impact of campaigns, spot potential market opportunities, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, businesses, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track social media 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, PR companies, market researchers, sales teams, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed affordable tools that facilitate the tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what consumers are saying about your products or brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely manner.
Go here if you would like to learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about:
(Can you measure your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we explore a simple social tracking tool for your site and increasing your social media presence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s job is to change all red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most are colored 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 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 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to convert all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to apply more effort and where to optimize.
Track Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WordPress users with a number of features. Here are a few:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated information from your WP admin bar, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting configuration. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, consuming little server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post type, post authors, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just convert all the reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials plugin users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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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)
SocialMetricsPro – Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Licensing Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This allows you to activate Social Metrics Pro on one site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on unlimited sites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price shown above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
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 Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals when determining website 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 website owners immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how and where 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 WP dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to shorten your path to success with social media marketing.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
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