Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook shares, comments, 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 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. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team 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 reliable ‘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 websites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
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 influential social media network on the planet. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a massive amount of sales on your site, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google processes social data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on search rankings of all social media sites.
(Number of monthly active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over 500 million tweets sent out every day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on tweeting posts that provide great value to followers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social networking 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 interacting socially on GooglePlus each day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
In addition to the big 3 social media giants listed above, there are a number of other social sites worth getting to know, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that can affect your rankings)
Social Signals – Which Ones Should You Pay Attention To?
Search engines like Google and Bing track various social signals, including:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, likes, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- Google+ – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many followers on GooglePlus a site page has, number and growth rate of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Reddit, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious signals that can influence search engine rankings. These include positive and undesirable factors, such as improving clickthrough rate (CTR) [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be irrelevant by visitors [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to find ways to develop your social media presence, but also to be able to monitor, measure and analyze your social performance in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media marketing can help improve your results online)
Tracking social media activity allows you to find insights into your company’s overall visibility on social media, spy on your competitors, identify potential opportunities for engagement, measure the impact of your marketing campaigns, and help you take preventative measures if you detect negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers. It can also provide valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific businesses, topics, brands, or products.
As a business intelligence tool, the ability to monitor activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, typically carried out by various people including marketing teams, market research, digital reputation specialists, agencies, sales teams, and social engagement and community staff. Typically, smaller businesses don’t can’t afford to pay a media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the media.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed tools and solutions that facilitate the monitoring of a broad spectrum of social media channels, enabling companies to track consumer behavior around their brands or products so they can react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
Go here if you want to learn more social media monitoring tools and technologies that you may want to check out:
(Do you know how to effectively measure your social signals?)
This article explores a simple WordPress plugin for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media presence online.
Introducing …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics WordPress Plugin
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social media analytics WordPress plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – Social Metrics Pro measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s goal is simple … change red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … just turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts with highest number of shares display green. Posts with low social media activity display amber or red.
The plugin developers tested Social Metrics Pro 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”. According to the plugin developers, they noticed 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 media marketing can can have a positive effect on your search engine rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details go here:
Benefits
Below are just some of the many benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Tweets, Likes, +1s, Pins and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Fast And Easy To Install And Set Up. Ready To Start Using In No Time.
SocialMetricsPro is very easy to install. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, your job is to turn more red squares into greens. SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social campaigns require investing more effort and which ones need to be better optimized.
Select Only Signals From Social Networks You Care About
Social Metrics Pro lets you track and monitor social activity across leading networks like GooglePlus, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Digg, and LinkedIn.
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 are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all of this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the sites that you care most about!)
SocialMetricsPro Features
SocialMetricsPro provides WordPress users with many unique features. Below we have listed some of those features:
- Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. View updated information from your WP admin bar, display social content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using widgets.
- One-click auto-update functionality. Update Social Metrics Pro in one click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to be notified via email whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Minimal hosting resources use. The plugin can generate social metrics reports in seconds, using minimal hosting resources. Reports also include the amount of time spent retrieving information and the server resources used to gather and compile the data.
Additional features include:
- Sort, Search And Filter Features: SocialMetricsPro lets you sort 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 post authors, publishing date, post type, or by category.
- 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 Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(SocialMetricsPro is very simple to use … just change more red squares into greens!)
Feedback From Users
Below are just some testimonials and comments that customers have published about SocialMetricsPro:
”As with any cool plugin, it solves a very simple problem – how to view how well your WordPress posts are being promoted.” Adam Small, Marketing Tech Blog
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Product Tips
A practical, step-by-step guide on how to optimize your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens) is also included.
Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and users get lifetime software upgrades and new releases for free with their purchase, backed by a risk-free, 60-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This enables you to run SocialMetricsPro on a single website. Includes free lifetime updates and free support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Unlimited Sites License – This license option lets you install SocialMetricsPro on unlimited sites that you own. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: The cost to purchase Social Metrics Pro depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the product 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 Product Information
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
In Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, 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 you instant feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and guides you how and where to improve your results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more directly from your WP admin area.
We recommend getting this plugin if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to measure your social media marketing results professionally.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: SocialMetricsPro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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