Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, shares, and comments, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals when determining a site’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 own web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a full ‘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 normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social media sites that search engines like Google look to for measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media community in the world. It has been estimated that an average post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount 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, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites, like Google+ or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
As Google’s own social networking site, GooglePlus naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
(A number of social sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook shares, likes, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a site has, the number of people sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on StumbleUpon, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search rankings and traffic. These include desirable and negative factors, such as improving clickthrough rate [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by other users [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to track, measure and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your business results)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spy on your competitors, and spot new market opportunities. It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, the ability to monitor volume and sentiments of online conversations, trends, and social activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various people including online reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market research, professional sales reps, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, many small businesses do not can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many service providers have developed tools to facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can react to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
To learn more about social media monitoring tools and technologies that you may want to check out, refer to this article:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
In this article, we discuss a simple WordPress plugin for tracking social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Our Recommended WordPress Plugin …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your task is simple … turn all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any user can operate … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics. Posts that get shared the most are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. From these tests, 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can dramatically affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Fast And Simple To Install And Set Up. Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your goal is to convert all the red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns need you to invest more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Track Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and StumbleUpon.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to 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 Social Metrics Pro, all this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro actively tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers a number of great features to site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and use. Ready to go to work in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with built-in and external widgets. View updated stats right on your WP dashboard, display social content on your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- One-click upgrading. Update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal usage of hosting resources. The plugin can generate reports fast, consuming very little hosting resources. The tool also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather and compile data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by publishing date, post authors, category, or by post type.
- Export Data: You can export filtered, sorted data and custom queries 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 very simple to use … just turn all the red squares into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin users have written about the Social Metrics Pro plugin:
”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
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a practical, step-by-step guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Product Support
Social Metrics Pro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This allows you to configure Social Metrics Pro on 1 web site only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This license enables you to activate SocialMetricsPro on all domains that you own. Pricing includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Current pricing for Social Metrics Pro can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the product retails for the pricing shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin seller when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing information here:
Additional Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Plugin
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. 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 media marketing campaigns and guides them how to improve their results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to monitor which social media networks are working for your business.
For full details, check out the plugin here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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