Social interactions like Facebook comments, shares, and likes, +1s on Google+, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s own 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 the social sphere 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 true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signals – Which Sites Matter?
Social media sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. Research shows that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine 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 every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer online 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 each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site naturally carries great authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every week. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other sites that should not be ignored, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(Social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a web page has, how influential the person retweeting your information is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ a site page has amassed, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can influence search engine 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 irrelevant by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only find ways to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, spot opportunities for engagement, spy on the competition, measure the impact of campaigns, and be alerted to crises. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor volume and sentiments of online conversations, social activity, and trends on social media channels like blogging, 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 online reputation specialists, marketing teams, market research, professional sales reps, social engagement and community personnel, and agencies. 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 online reputation.
Fortunately a number of providers have made available affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your brand so you can respond proactively to conversations and engage with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have created a comprehensive article where we explore over 30 social media monitoring tools and technologies that will help you identify new trends and opportunities, track competitor activity, see what online conversations are taking place that affect your business,etc. More information:
(Can you monitor your social signals effectively?)
In this article, we look at a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence online.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make improving your social media exposure uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures and tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The user’s goal is simple … convert all the red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any user can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand 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”. 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, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased web traffic and increased revenue!)
More info:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s job is to change all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to centrally monitor social media activity from social media networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
Social Metrics Pro provides many features to website owners. Below we have listed a few:
- Fast and simple to install and configure. Ready to go to work in no time.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality using external and built-in widgets. Access the latest stats from your WordPress admin bar, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Plugin even works on the smallest hosting. Social metrics reports are compiled fast, using minimal server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to gather and compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, publishing date, post type, or by 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn more red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”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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”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
Plugin Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% refund guarantee.
Software Cost
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Cost includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License Edition – This license lets you set up SocialMetricsPro on all web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Price details for the product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the product is being retailed for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the product developer when you visit the plugin 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 Product Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Install This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining a website’s ranking.
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 WordPress users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them how to direct their efforts in order to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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