Social interactions and recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines are now taking into account social signals when determining website ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media 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 assessing social media 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 a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide real value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social media network in the world. Research shows that an average post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence website rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest 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 volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Pay Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people follow you, authority of adds and shares, 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 influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as influential as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by other users [negative].
As a business 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.
(Use social media to improve your business results)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into your brand’s online visibility on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers, spy on your competitors, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and identify market opportunities. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including marketing teams, digital reputation management (ORM) agencies, market researchers, social media marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately different technology providers have developed tools to facilitate the tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify what consumers are saying about your brand or products allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
If you want to learn more about social media monitoring 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 conversations are taking place online that can affect your business,etc, see this article:
(Can you track your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple, yet highly effective social monitoring tool for WordPress and improving your social media presence online.
Our Recommended WordPress Product Is …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is simple … convert all reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that anyone can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro 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 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Below are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your administrator account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require investing more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to track and monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and Digg directly from your WP 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?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to WordPress users. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Ready to use in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated stats right on your WordPress dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when new plugin updates are released.
- Consumes very little hosting resources. Reporting is fast, using minimal hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server resources used to compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries 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 simple to use … just change all the reds into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Here are a couple of the testimonials and feedback that users have provided for the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
A step-by-step guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost to purchase the SocialMetricsPro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Recommend
As mentioned earlier, 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 WordPress users immediate feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and guides them where to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to improve social visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
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