Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter mentions and retweets, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide value normally 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 look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. Research shows that one great post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus 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 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume 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 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 actively using GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, comments, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has amassed, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine rankings and 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 other users [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, spy on your competitors, identify potential opportunities for engagement, be alerted to disasters, and measure the impact of campaigns. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, products, brands, or topics.
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 groups that include marketing teams, PR agencies, market research, social engagement and community staff, social media marketing agencies, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately a number of service providers have created many affordable tools that facilitate the active tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify what is being said online about your brand or products allowing you to react to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have created a detailed article listing several social media tracking tools that will help you keep track of online trends, monitor competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that could affect your business, etc, see what online conversations are taking place that can affect your business,etc. For more details, go here:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective WordPress plugin for monitoring social signals and improving your social media exposure online.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. Your job is to turn red squares into greens.
(A system that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can dramatically affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Easy To Install And Use. Be Up And Running In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator login and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to invest more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to track and monitor social activity from social networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
Social Metrics Pro 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 of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides many great features to site owners. Here are some:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to go to work in no time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using built-in and external widgets. Access the latest stats from your WP dashboard, display popular content on your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update the plugin with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new versions are released.
- Minimal consumption of server resources. Reporting is in seconds, consuming little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, category, post type, or post authors.
- 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 really simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are a few of the testimonials and comments that customers have published about 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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”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
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you use Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This lets you configure SocialMetricsPro on unlimited websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The pricing shown above was correct when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the product website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro 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 tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
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 how and where to direct your efforts in order 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 WP dashboard.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save money on outsourcing your social marketing campaigns or train your staff to manage your campaigns inhouse.
For more information, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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