Social interactions like Facebook comments, likes, and shares, Twitter retweets and mentions, 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 since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages website owners to build their brand on social media 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 to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide real value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to rank higher in its search engine.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network in the world. Research shows that one great post can reach up to 150,000 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 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 indicates that Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites, like Twitter andGooglePlus.
(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 plays a significant role as a global influencer online and places great importance on the authority of tweets posted to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google+
As Google’s own social site, Google+ naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling social community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, shares, and comments you have, growth rate of likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person sending tweets is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount and growth rate 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 signals that can influence search traffic and rankings. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as backlinks from authority sites (not as relevant as they once were, but still a factor) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media marketing to help improve your business results)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, assess competitor activity and market dominance, take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, identify opportunities for engagement, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, businesses, products, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to track conversations and social activity on social media channels like blogging, forums, news sites, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, etc., discussion groups, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by a cross-section of people including online reputation specialists, marketing professionals, market research, social marketing agencies, social engagement and community personnel, and professional sales reps. Typically, smaller businesses do not have the budget to pay a media monitoring service to track their coverage in the and actively monitor their digital reputation.
Fortunately many service providers have made available a range of tools to facilitate the active monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, enabling you to identify and even predict what is being said online about your brand or products so you can respond to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a detailed article where we explore many social media tracking tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. More information:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress-driven sites for monitoring social media signals and improving your social media exposure.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – the plugin tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is simple … change all reds into greens.
(A system that any user can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts with the highest number of shares show up green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested SocialMetricsPro on a network of 2,000+ 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”. 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 they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, improving your social marketing campaigns can result in higher search engine rankings, increased web traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Social Metrics Pro
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Easy To Install And Set Up. Ready To Start Using In Minutes.
Social Metrics Pro is quite easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin user area and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your objective is to change all the reds into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and where to optimize.
Track Only Signals You Care About
Social Metrics Pro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Digg.
Social Metrics Pro 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 on social media?
- And more …
With Social Metrics Pro, all of this information is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly tracks social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides a number of features to WP users. Here are some:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access the latest information right on your WP dashboard, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. You can update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification whenever a new version is released.
- Low-resource consumption. The plugin can generate reports fast, using little server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: Social Metrics Pro allows you to sort, search and filter the data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, category, publishing date, or 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 convert all reds into greens!)
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials that plugin customers have provided for Social Metrics Pro:
”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 Takes WordPress Stats to the Next Level.” Lorraine Ball, Creative Director, Roundpeg
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin 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, complete refund guarantee.
Product Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Edition – This edition lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on a single site. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multi-Site Edition – This lets you activate Social Metrics Pro on multiple domains that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: The cost of purchasing the SocialMetricsPro software depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the current pricing at the time this review was published. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and you may be shown 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.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been tracking 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 marketing strategy and shows you how and where to direct your efforts in order to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is an ideal tool for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP admin area.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to make social media marketing work for you.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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