Social recommendations like Twitter retweets and mentions, Facebook comments, shares, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
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 the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships can change at a moment’s notice. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much 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 websites that provide true value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to display higher in its search listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most influential social network in the world. Research shows that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, you should not be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like GooglePlus or Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the next biggest 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 emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are starting to interact socially on Google+ each day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks worth getting to know, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines track a number of social signals, including:
- 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, the number of people sharing your information, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on GooglePlus your web page has amassed, authority of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search engine rankings and traffic. These include positive 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 website owner, it’s not only important to grow your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor and analyze your social media in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s online visibility on social media, assess competitor activity, identify potential market opportunities, measure the impact of campaigns, and take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by disgruntled customers. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific products, brands, businesses, or topics.
As a business intelligence tool, being able to monitor activity, conversations, and trends on social media channels like blogs, forums, wikis, micro-blogging platforms, message boards, video/photo sharing sites, and user-generated content (UGC) is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of groups that include online reputation specialists, marketing teams, market researchers, professional sales reps, social media marketing agencies, and social engagement and community personnel. Typically, many small businesses do not have the budget to pay social media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately different providers have made available a range of tools to facilitate the monitoring of a broad range of social media channels, allowing companies to track what is being said online about their products or brands so they can react to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media monitoring tools and technologies that are worth knowing about. For more details, go here:
(Are you searching for an effective tool that can help you measure your social signals?)
In this article, we discuss a simple, yet highly effective social media tracking plugin for your WordPress-based website and growing your social media influence.
Introducing …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
Description Of Plugin
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics plugin for WordPress that is designed to help users improve their social media presence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The user’s job is simple … change all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that anyone can follow … simply turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that receive the most shares display green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber or red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand sites 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”. 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 media marketing campaigns can affect your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
Learn more about this plugin here:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Installation Is Easy
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin login and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your task is to turn all the red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Track Social Signals From The Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro provides a powerful dashboard to monitor social activity from networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Digg.
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 constantly tracks the social sites that you care most about!)
Social Metrics Pro Features
SocialMetricsPro offers WordPress users with many unique features. Here are just a few of these:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Widgets & Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality using external and built-in widgets. View the latest information right on your WordPress dashboard, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-updating functionality. Update SocialMetricsPro in one click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to be notified via email whenever a new version is released.
- Low-resource consumption. The plugin generates social metrics reports very quickly, using minimal server resources. The tool also includes the amount of time used to retrieve information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by category, post authors, post type, or publishing date.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just change reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are some of the testimonials and feedback plugin users have published about Social Metrics Pro:
”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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”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
A practical guide on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Product Support
The plugin is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, complete money-back guarantee.
Product Pricing
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This edition allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on one site only. Pricing includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This edition enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on all the websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and free support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Pricing details of the SocialMetricsPro product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the plugin website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after purchasing.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Plugin Information
Social Metrics Pro 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social marketing strategy and shows you where to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WordPress dashboard.
We recommend getting Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to save time and resources by focusing on under-optimized social media marketing campaigns.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin For WordPress
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