Social interactions and recommendations like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, Twitter mentions and retweets, etc. are called social signals.
With the growth of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Bing and Google have started taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages businesses 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 full ‘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 develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social media 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 largest social network on the planet. Research shows that one great 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 Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses social 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.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
As Google’s own social media site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are actively using Google+ each month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the authority of the person sharing the URL, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on Google+ a URL has amassed, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your products, brand, or company on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by online users, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, assess competitor activity, and identify opportunities for engagement. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, products, or businesses.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to track social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including digital reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market research, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately different technology companies have developed affordable tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing you to track what is being said online about your brand allowing you to react to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article on social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. To learn more about this go here:
(Are you looking for an effective way to measure social signals?)
This article explores a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media exposure online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is to change more red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … turn 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 are colored amber or red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of 2,000+ websites over a period of three 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, improving your social marketing can result in higher search engine rankings, more web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up. Be Up And Running In No Time.
Social Metrics Pro installs just like every plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP admin account and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s goal is to change more red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know where to put more effort and which campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social media activity from networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Digg, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Product Features
Social Metrics Pro offers a number of great features to site owners. Below we have listed some:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Ready to use in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information right on your WP admin bar, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Minimal server resources use. The plugin can generate social metrics reports very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources used to gather data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort and filter your data however 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: 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 red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials plugin customers have submitted for 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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“Social Metrics Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Plugin Tips
SocialMetricsPro comes with a step-by-step guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
SocialMetricsPro Plugin Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Licensing Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single domain. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site License Edition – This lets you install SocialMetricsPro on multiple sites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. The above reflects the current pricing when this content was published. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin site 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.
Get The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you how and where to direct your efforts in order 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.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to see measurable results.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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