Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, comments, and shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, etc. are called social signals.
With the rising importance of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account various social signals when determining 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 own web spam team 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 reliable ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your website, 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, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ and Twitter.
(Number of 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 single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your site page has accrued, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine traffic. These include positive and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your brand’s overall visibility on social media, help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, identify market opportunities, and spy on your competitors. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think 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, often carried out by a cross-section of people including market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation specialists, social engagement and community staff, agencies, and sales teams. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of providers have developed a range of tools that facilitate the active tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their brands allowing them to react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely manner.
We have created a comprehensive article listing a number of social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. Go here for more info:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you track social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple social tracking plugin for WordPress and increasing your social media influence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your objective is to convert more red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ sites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing can positively can have a dramatic impact on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Very Easy To Install
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert more red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know where to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals From The Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity from networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors social signals from the social sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many unique features to web site owners. Here are a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays the latest stats right on your WordPress admin bar, display socially popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrades. Update Social Metrics Pro with a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive email notifications when new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal use of hosting resources. Metric reports are compiled very quickly, consuming very little hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering and compiling data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or post type.
- 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 more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials and comments that customers have published about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
A practical guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This license enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on unlimited domains that you own. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost of purchasing this product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current price at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
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.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and 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. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you how to improve your 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 SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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