Enter AuthorRank
Now let's talk about something really measurable, Author Rank. Let's talk a look at an example post:
The data I have circled is easily collected by Google. They don't need to accumulate it in real time forever for it to work. They can simply scrape the data whenever they load the article page for some period of time after the article first posts. This certainly gives a sense of the popularity, and perhaps the importance, of a given post.
Now, let's talk about some other data that Google can potentially obtain and use that supports the notion of Author Rank, using social signals:
Average Article Velocity: The concept of velocity relates to the tweets, +1s, shares, Likes ("social events") per day, per hour, or even per minute. We already know that this is something that both Google and Bing measure for purposes of identifying news. However, consider the concept that search engines can track your average performance in this area over time.
Average Social Event Volume: This is how many social events you generate per average article.
Monthly Social Event Volume: This is how many social events you generate per average month.
Authority of the Publishing Sites: You always thought it would be great to get published in The New York Times. Think about it again, this time with a fresh site of eyes on the benefit. Being endorsed as a writer in a major journal like that. Get published once? Great! Get a column? Killer stuff. Google can measure this based on traditional signals like link related metrics, but also the activity level in their social accounts (including Google+).
Author to Author Comparisons: How do the social events related to your articles compare to others who write on the same site?
Your Google+ Profile Following and Activity: This is easy for them. They can see how people engage and interact with your online profile. If you have a company profile, they can look at that too.
