Social interactions and recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the rise of social sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing now take into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
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 assessing social media signals, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. 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 real value normally develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google 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 more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search engine rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
Google’s own social site 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 interacting socially on GooglePlus each month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Google and Bing include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares you have, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, the authority of the person sending a tweet, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [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 grow 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.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to gain insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, assess competitor activity and mind share, be alerted to impending crises, spot market opportunities, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, topics, products, or businesses.
As a tool for business intelligence, social media signal monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various groups that include marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, market researchers, sales teams, social marketing agencies, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, small businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various service providers have made available affordable tools to facilitate the active tracking of a wide spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to identify what is being said online about your products or brand allowing you to respond proactively to conversations and interact with online users in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article listing over 30 social media monitoring tools that are worth checking out and knowing about. For more information, go here:
(Are you measuring social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple, yet highly effective plugin for WordPress-powered websites for tracking social media signals and increasing your social media influence.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics For WordPress
Plugin Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin that is designed to make growing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and returns either a green or red indicator. The user’s task is to convert all red squares into greens.
(SocialMetricsPro provides a system that any website owner can follow … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro 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”. 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 their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to the plugin developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing can dramatically affect your search engine rankings, traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your web site:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
SocialMetricsPro is quite easy to install. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s task is to convert all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity across leading networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest directly from your WordPress admin area.
SocialMetricsPro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(Social Metrics Pro constantly tracks the sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WP users with a number of features. Below we have listed just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information from your WP admin bar, add social content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click upgrades. You can update the plugin in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new versions are released.
- Minimal server resources usage. Metric reports are generated very quickly, using very little server resources. Reports also display the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post authors, post type, category, or publishing date.
- 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.
(SocialMetricsPro is really simple to use … just turn all red squares into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are just some testimonials and comments plugin users have written about the SocialMetricsPro 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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”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 (WordCamp Montreal 2011)
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and users get lifetime software updates and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full money-back guarantee.
Product Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This lets you install Social Metrics Pro on a single website. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Licensing – This license lets you configure Social Metrics Pro on all the web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of SocialMetricsPro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price when this content was written. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Get This Product
As mentioned earlier, with the rising importance of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Bing are now taking into account a range of social signals to help determine 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 you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing campaigns and shows you how and where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
Get SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to make social media marketing campaigns work for you.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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