Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook likes, shares, and comments, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than 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 social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere 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 true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search results.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most influential social network in the world. Research shows that an average post can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one seems to be buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site 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 interacting socially on Google+ each year. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social sites listed above, there are a number of other sites that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media 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 Bing and Google include:
- 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, the authority of the person sharing the information, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ your site page has, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search engine traffic and 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 of poor quality by visitors [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social signals 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 overall visibility on social media, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot market opportunities, spy on your competitors, and avert impending crises. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific brands, products, topics, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, social signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including market researchers, marketing teams, digital reputation management companies, professional sales reps, social engagement and community staff, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately a number of service providers have developed a range of affordable and even free tools that facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify what consumers are saying about their brands so they can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely manner.
To learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you identify new business opportunities, track competitor activity, see what conversations are taking place online that can affect your business,etc, refer to this article:
(Are you monitoring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and growing your social media influence online.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple concept – the tool measures and tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is simple … convert more reds into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and 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”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, more web traffic and more revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Set Up. Ready To Go To Work In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Track The Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social media activity from networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro 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 of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides a number of great features to WP users. Below we have listed a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Social Metrics Pro Is Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro displays updated information from your WordPress admin bar, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive an email notification whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal server resources usage. Reporting is fast, consuming very little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time used to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or by post authors.
- 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.
(Social Metrics Pro is simple to use … just change red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials and comments users have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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
***
”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
Useful Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and users get lifetime updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites Edition – This license enables you to configure SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the software author when you visit the site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download This Plugin
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google are now taking into account various social signals when determining 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 users immediate feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to outperform your competitors on social media.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
***
***