TRAACKR

Thanks to everyone who sent in submissions for our PR2.0 influencer contest.  It was a very interesting experiment for us and we’re very happy for the participation.  Thanks!

The List…Revealed

Without further ado (drumroll please), we can now release the “unmasked”, totally exposed list of the Top 25 Authorities moving PR Forward.  As you can see, the Top 5 Authorities moving PR Forward are:

#5 – Steve Rubel

#4 – Jason Falls

#3 – Sarah Evans

#2 – Brian Solis

#1 – Chris Brogan

Surprised (we were)? Excited?  Disappointed?

Contest Winner

The entries were very interesting.  It was actually difficult to determine the winner with several top contributors offering very similar pics.  With that said, there was not one single entry that picked everyone on the Top 5 — let alone in the right order.  However, the one who came the closest was the team at @PerkettPR (led by @pprlisa) who guessed the Top 3 correctly…making them the closest of anyone in the contest.  So, congratulations @pprlisa and the rest at @PerkettPR — we will be forwarding your $50 Amazon gift card to Lisa’s email today!  Nice job!

In case you are interested here are the % of submissions that selected the Top 5 (respectively):

• Chris Brogan – apx 65%
• Brian Solis – apx 60%
• Sarah Evans – apx 35%
• Jason Falls – apx 20%
• Steve Rubel – apx 20%

Interesting stuff.  A couple of people who were mentioned by many of the submissions were Michael Arrington (founder of TechCrunch) and Richard MacManus (founder of Mashable)…this is an important point as it refers to Traackr’s methodology.  While both of these blogs are extremely influential — what we do at Traackr is locate the specific author on each site who is most relevant to the topic at hand.  In this case, Sarah Evans is the most relevant Mashable author.  Knowing this is very, very powerful for those trying to gain insight into the influencers in a specific topic area.

One Final Note

After releasing the initial list earlier this week, we received some (passionate) comments about #15: Strumpette (aka Amanda Chapel) is a fictional character that has been created by a PR professional (some say there are multiple authors behind Strumpette) to speak AGAINST social media and the traditional pro-PR 2.0 rhetoric.  So, some people thought she should be removed from the list.   We respectfully disagree.  It happens quite often with our work that influencers from both sides of an issue make the list.  It is important to note that at Traackr we believe that the sentiment of one’s content does not drive or define influence.  The fact that they built a following listening to, engaging with them and amplifying the signal defines their influence.  In fact, we would argue that knowing the influential voices on the other side of the aisle are just as important in almost any circumstance. As for the “fake” identity, Traackr’s philosophy is always to try to identify the person behind the content, rather than a mere URL or Twitter handle. That said, non of our geeky technologists have a background on intelligence gathering or P.I., and nor should they: if influencers we find don’t feel comfortable sharing their “real” name on their public feeds, we won’t look for it – this is really no different from the use of aliases by authors, actors and journalists we have come to accept for centuries.

With all that said — congrats to PerkettPR and thanks to everyone for participating!