Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account a range of social signals to help determine a website’s 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 web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a full ‘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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not 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, Facebook seems influence search rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social media site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social signals, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets your web page has, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, spread rate of adds and shares, 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 factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as links from authority sites (backlinks) (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, be alerted to crises, identify market opportunities, assess competitor activity and market dominance, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. It can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific products, topics, brands, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor social media channels like blogs, forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, discussion groups, video 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 various groups that include marketing professionals, market researchers, online reputation management companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have created many tools that facilitate the tracking of a broad range of social media channels, enabling companies to identify consumer behavior around their brands so they can react to conversations and engage with online users in various social media platforms.
If you want to learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about, see this article:
(Are you searching for an effective way to track your social signals?)
In this article, we explore a simple social monitoring tool for your WordPress-based digital presence and increasing your social media influence.
Announcing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help users increase their social media exposure online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the system tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s objective is simple … change all red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. 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 the plugin developers, improving your social marketing can result in better search rankings, more traffic and more revenue!)
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Plugin Benefits
Below we have listed just some of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like any WP plugin. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress administrator login and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s goal is to convert all reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social activity from networks like GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with a number of features. Here are a few:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated stats from your WordPress dashboard, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click updates. You can update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email when new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. Reporting is fast, consuming little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro 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 post authors, post type, publishing date, or category.
- Export Data To Excel: 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials that plugin users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”Social Metrics is the easiest way to see at a glance which posts have performed well on social networks.” Kevin Muldoon, Founder of WPMods.com
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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
SocialMetricsPro Plugin – Useful Tips
A practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option enables you to configure Social Metrics Pro on one site only. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on multiple websites that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The price of Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the software author when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This 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 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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing campaigns and shows them how and where to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to outperform your competitors on social media.
For full details, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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