Social recommendations like Facebook comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine website 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘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 sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great 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, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next 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 followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your site has, the number of people tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or products on social media, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by online users, identify new market opportunities, spy on your competition, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including online reputation management companies, marketing professionals, market research, agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately various technology providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to identify consumer behavior around your brand or products so you can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
Go here to learn more about social media tracking tools and technologies that you may want to check out:
(Are you looking for an effective tool to help you monitor social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple social media monitoring plugin for WordPress and improving your social media presence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For 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 concept – the system measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is to convert all the red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites over a period of 3 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just some of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick Installation
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your administrator login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to change all reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to track and monitor social activity from networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WP admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides WP users with many great features. Here are some:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin works even on the smallest hosting. Reports are generated in seconds, consuming very little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you 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 category, post authors, post type, or publishing date.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export data to 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 very simple to use … just turn reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials and comments users have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”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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”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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on multiple sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product developer when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
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 marketing strategy and guides you where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to reduce your social media marketing learning curve.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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