Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance 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.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social presence 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 social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social community on the planet. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus 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 interacting on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a URL has accrued, spread rate of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social marketing performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, spot market opportunities, spy on your competitors, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied users, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific brands, businesses, products, or topics.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track social media channels like blogging, internet forums, social networking platforms, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., discussion groups, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content 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 online reputation management (ORM) agencies, marketing professionals, market research, agencies, professional sales reps, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different service providers have developed tools and solutions to facilitate the active tracking of a wide range of social media channels, allowing companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing several social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. Go here to learn more:
(Can you measure social signals effectively?)
This article explores a simple social tracking plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media presence online.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to change all reds into greens.
(A system that anyone can follow … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and 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 their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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, improving your social marketing can dramatically can have a positive effect on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Installation Is Easy & Simple
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s task is to change all the reds into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Digg, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer 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.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with many features. Below we have listed just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to start using in no time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information from your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog 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 choose to be notified via email whenever new versions are released.
- Low server resource consumption. The plugin generates reports very quickly, using very little server resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data: You can export filtered data and custom queries 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just change all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials that plugin users have submitted for SocialMetricsPro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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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
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This option enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one website only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This allows you to activate SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the software is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the software author when you visit the product site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you where and how to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social marketing measurable.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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