Social interactions like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, 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 businesses 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 the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to the social sphere over other aspects of their search algorithm. In summary, Google’s strategy is to “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google naturally wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to when measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media community on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving droves of customers to your website, you should not be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your online business strategy, as Google uses 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 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 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter plays a significant role as a global influencer on the cybersphere 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 Plus
As Google’s own social media site, Google+ 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 starting to interact socially on GooglePlus every month. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social sites listed above, there are a number of other social sites that provide important social metrics, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that could affect your search engine rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay 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 likes and shares, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your web page has, amount and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine rankings. 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 visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s important to not only find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze social signals in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your brand, services, or company on social media, spy on your competition, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, spot market opportunities, and avert crises. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers think about specific topics, brands, businesses, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, social monitoring 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 groups that include market researchers, digital reputation managers, marketing teams, social marketing agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, small businesses do not have the budget to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately various technology companies have developed many affordable tools that facilitate the active tracking of a broad spectrum of social media channels, allowing you to track consumer behavior around your products or brand so you can respond to conversations and interact with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have written a comprehensive article listing a number of social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. More information:
(Do you know how to effectively track your social signals?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress-powered websites and blogs for monitoring social media signals and increasing your social media exposure.
Let’s Review …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users increase their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – the tool tracks how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. Your goal is to turn more reds into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can operate … 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 are colored amber and 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 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 SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing can result in higher search rankings, more web traffic and increased revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Installation Is Easy, Simple And Quick
Social Metrics Pro is very easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator area and activate.
Really Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the user’s objective is to turn all reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals the way Google sees it so you know where to put more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Choose Only Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally track and monitor social media activity across leading social networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest.
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 SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively monitors the social sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WordPress users with many unique features. Here are some of those:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Social Metrics Pro shows the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, add socially popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrading functionality. You can update the plugin in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update it manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Low server resource consumption. Reporting is very quickly, consuming little hosting resources. Reports also display the amount of time spent retrieving the information and the server memory used to compile data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search & Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter the data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post authors, category, publishing date, or post type.
- Export Data To Excel: 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 really simple to use … just turn more reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Here are a couple of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about SocialMetricsPro:
”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
Social Metrics Pro Plugin – Tips
Social Metrics Pro comes with a step-by-step, practical guide showing you how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Pricing
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This option allows you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Cost includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Licensing – This enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of this product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the product is selling for the amounts shown above. This may or may not be the actual price set by the software seller when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Info
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
Download The Product
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. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing strategy and guides them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and want to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized networks.
To learn more, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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