Social recommendations like Facebook shares, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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 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 summary, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post 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 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 shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter orGooglePlus.
(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 online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are actively using GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sharing the posts, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a web page has, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can indirectly influence search engine traffic. 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 of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, spy on your competition, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, and help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific topics, brands, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to monitor volume and sentiments of social conversations and social activity on social media channels like blogs, internet forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Quora, etc., 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, often carried out by various groups that include market research, digital reputation managers, marketing professionals, sales teams, agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of technology providers have developed affordable tools and solutions to facilitate the monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to react to conversations and engage with online users in a timely fashion.
We have created a detailed article where we explore over 30 social media measurement tools and technologies that are worth checking out and knowing about. Go here for more information:
(Are you monitoring your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we review a simple plugin for WordPress-driven websites for tracking social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to turn all reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin 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 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, focusing on improving your social media marketing can positively impact your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
To learn more about this plugin go here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Easy Installation
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin section and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to turn red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to 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 Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the social media sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro offers many great features to website owners. Here are a few:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to start using in very little time.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with built-in and external widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows updated information right on your WP dashboard, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications when a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources usage. The plugin can generate reports fast, using very little hosting resources. The tool also displays the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort 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, publishing date, category, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change all the red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials and feedback users have published 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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”If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve.” Goes one of the most important sayings in business. And this is particularly true for tracking of your social mentions I found. There were two things that helped me a great deal to increase sharing after installing Social Metrics: First, I was able to see that some of my articles would perform much better on networks I wasn’t particularly using, such as StumbleUpon for example. Secondly, I could filter out the best performing content more easily and analyse what makes my readers share. Since then I have focused strongly on producing and replicating those posts that performed best.” Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This license option lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on one website only. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The price shown above was correct when this content was published. This may not be the actual price set by the product author when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing information here:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, with the growth of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now take into account social signals to help determine website ranking.
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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to track your social signals automatically.
For more information, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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