Social recommendations like +1s on GooglePlus, Facebook shares, comments, and likes, etc. are called social signals.
With the increased importance of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account social signals to help determine a website’s ranking.
Note: Google encourages website owners 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 full ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to the social sphere 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 engine listings.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social community in the world. It has been estimated that a single post on Facebook can reach up to 150,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss the importance of Facebook in your online business strategy, as Google uses social data and information from Facebook when determining your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search 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 half a billion tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence on the cybersphere and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the volume of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social media site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it is still a fledgling online community compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook.
(More people are interacting on Google+ each year. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big three listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that should not be ignored, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
(A number of social sites provide important signals that can affect your search rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track a number of social signals, including:
- 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 URL has, the authority of the person tweeting, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many followers on Google+ your URL has, number of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, comments on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related signals that can influence search traffic. These include desirable and negative 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 site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s not only important to find ways to grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze social media performance in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your brand, company, or services on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, be alerted to disasters, spy on your competitors, and identify opportunities for engagement. It can also provide vital data about emerging trends and what consumers and clients are thinking about specific topics, products, businesses, or brands.
As a business intelligence tool, 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 teams, market research, PR staff, social engagement and community personnel, sales teams, and social media marketing agencies. Typically, smaller businesses do not can’t afford to pay social media monitoring professionals to track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many providers have developed many affordable tools that facilitate the active tracking of a variety of social media channels, enabling you to track consumer behavior around your brand allowing you to respond to conversations and interact with consumers in a timely fashion.
We have created a detailed article listing many social media measurement tools that you may want to check out. Go here for more details:
(Are you looking for an effective way to monitor your social signals?)
This article discusses a simple, yet effective social tracking plugin for WordPress and growing your social media influence online.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you increase your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a green or red indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … convert reds into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with the highest number of shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity show up amber and red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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 can result in better search engine rankings, increased traffic and more revenue!)
Learn more here:
Benefits
Here we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP Dashboard on your web site:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs like any WP plugin. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your admin section and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to convert all red squares into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social media signals so you know which social campaigns require more effort and which social marketing campaigns need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you centrally monitor social activity across leading social networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
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 is available on-demand, with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors social signals from the sites that you care most about!)
Features
Social Metrics Pro provides site owners with a number of features. Below we have listed just some of those features:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. SocialMetricsPro shows updated stats right on your WordPress admin bar, add socially popular content to your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click upgrading. Update Social Metrics Pro with one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever a new version is released.
- Utilizes minimal resources. Reporting is fast, using minimal hosting resources. Report generation also includes the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server resources consumed when gathering the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort, search and filter the information however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by publishing date, post type, category, or post authors.
- Export Data To Excel: You can export filtered 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 really simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
User Testimonials
Below are just a few of the testimonials plugin customers have submitted regarding the Social Metrics Pro 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
***
”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
Product Tips
Social Metrics Pro includes a practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your site for social media success (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free support and free lifetime updates, backed by a risk-free, sixty-day, full refund guarantee.
Plugin Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License Edition – This lets you use Social Metrics Pro on 1 domain only. Cost includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This allows you to configure SocialMetricsPro on all websites that you own. Includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Price = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing for the SocialMetricsPro plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is selling for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin seller when you visit the plugin website and you may be shown additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the latest price here:
Additional Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, with the increased importance of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, search engines have started taking into account a range of social signals when determining website ranking.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives users instant feedback on the success of their social marketing strategy and guides them where to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP dashboard.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social marketing results professionally.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin For WordPress
***
***