Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
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 its web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. 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 a sensible one - “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 naturally wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media 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 a ton of sales on your website, don’t be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ 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 plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments 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.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search rankings and traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant 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 social media 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 your brand’s overall visibility on social media, be alerted to crises, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, assess competitor activity and market share, and spot potential opportunities for engagement. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media 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 people including marketing teams, market researchers, digital reputation management companies, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and agencies. Typically, many small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various service providers have developed many affordable tools to facilitate the monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have written a detailed article on social media tracking tools that are worth knowing about here:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress-powered websites for tracking social media signals and improving your social media presence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin that is designed to help users improve their social media presence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. Your job is to turn more red squares into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites 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 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 can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast Installation
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin account and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity across leading networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Digg directly from your WordPress 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 this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many features to WordPress users. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and simple 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. Access updated stats from your WP admin bar, add social content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. You can update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Utilizes minimal server resources. Social reports are compiled very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources used to compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, publishing date, post authors, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 really simple to use … just convert more red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about 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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”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
Plugin Tips
A practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This lets you use SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This enables you to use SocialMetricsPro on multiple domains that you own. It includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for the Social Metrics Pro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is selling for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the current price:
Additional Plugin Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine 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 immediate feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and guides you where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to see measurable results.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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