Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, +1s on GooglePlus, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of social signals to help determine website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social 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 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 reliable ‘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 real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that one great post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on GooglePlus every week. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending a tweet is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, company, or brand on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of campaigns, avert impending crises, and assess competitor activity and market share. It can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, products, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social media signal 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 market researchers, online reputation specialists, marketing professionals, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various providers have made available affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the active monitoring of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
We have created a detailed article listing over 30 social media tracking tools that you may want to check out. For more details, go here:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple social media tracking plugin for a WordPress-based online business and increasing your social media presence online.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media 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 premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your job is to turn more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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”. 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can significantly can have a significant effect on your search rankings, traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits
Below are just some of the benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP admin account and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change all the reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro allows you to centrally track and monitor social activity from social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular on social media?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides site owners with a number of features. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to use in very little time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using built-in and external widgets. View the latest stats right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Consumes minimal resources. Metric reports are compiled very quickly, using minimal server resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, post authors, publishing date, or category.
- Export Data: You can export data to 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 very simple to use … just convert reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials that users 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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”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
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. 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 risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Plugin Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on 1 site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License – This license option allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for the Social Metrics Pro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The price above was correct at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the site and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account various social signals when determining a site’s 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and shows them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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