Over the weekend we launched a complete redesign of the Traackr interface, and for weeks now we’ve been bursting at the seams to tell you about it. Now, before a quick tour of the brand new UI, I must give props to our awesome tech team for putting in countless coding hours to make everything shiny and new. There are also some significant releases in the works for the upcoming weeks – so be sure to check back to get the scoop.

So what’s new

To put it simply: everything. We wanted to create a better user experience so we redesigned everything – the Dashboard, Campaign page, A-List page, Influencer profiles and even had some time to add some new features. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new:

• Account Dashboard offers you a summary of the activity in your account as well as a quick look at any new influencers appearing on any of your lists. Soon you will be able to add an Influencer Monitor to your dashboard as well as see more recent activity.
• Main site Menu allows you to quickly move from your Dashboard, to your Campaigns, to your Monitors.
• Multiple ways to complete an action like create a new campaign or Influencer Monitor.
• New Influencer Profiles with clear and separate tabs for recent, relevant posts from the influencer & the influencer’s full online footprint.
• A breakdown of the keywords used by an influencer displayed with their recent posts.  Very shortly, you will be able to sort an influencer’s content by keyword.
• Ability to export any list to a data feed (JSON) which can be used to integrate your A-List into a separate application
• A separate page for your Influencer Monitors.
• Ability to Subscribe to any Influencer Monitor via an RSS feed

Also, just a reminder that we have officially implemented the Diversity Index in our Relevance scoring (which Derek blogged about last week).  While this feature isn’t necessarily visible in the interface, it’s an important improvement behind the scenes.

Not only does October mark the onset of colder weather, baseball play-offs, and pumpkin spiced lattes, but it also marks something a bit more heavy-hearted – the start of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Here are a few stats (from the American Cancer Society) to put things in perspective for 2010:

• About 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women.
• About 54,010 new cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) will be diagnosed (CIS is non-invasive and is the earliest form of breast cancer).
• About 39,840 women will die from breast cancer.
• Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer.

However, there is a silver lining to these daunting stats; at this time there are over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. Nowadays everyone has some connection to breast cancer, whether it be a sister, mother, grandmother, wife or friend battling the disease, so positive statistics like these are important to keep in mind.

In light of it being October, we were curious to see who is leading the online discussion of Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Awareness. And without further ado, here are the Top Breast Cancer Influencers. The list includes doctors, biotech professionals, journalists, patients and cancer survivors. It’s a great group of people that are definitely work checking out!

Now, you might be wondering how these people were deemed the top online influencers in breast cancer awareness. Fair enough. Traackr’s Authority List is developed through a methodical approach in which we take all the jumble on the Internet regarding online influencers, and turn it into meaningful, understandable and useful information for our clients. Through this approach, we identify the most influential individuals who play a pivotal role in a specific space – in this case, breast cancer awareness. How we do this is with keywords. In this case, the keywords were as follows:

“breast cancer” chemotherapy, “breast tissue” cancer, “I started” chemo treatment, “breast cancer” chemo treatment, medication research “breast cancer”, “my mom” diagnosed “breast cancer”, “i was” diagnosed “breast cancer”, “I was diagnosed” “breast cancer”, her2 herceptin, “breast reconstruction” cancer, mastectomy reconstruction, “DIEP flap procedure”, mammogram screening, “self examination” breast, cancer prevention education, “breast cancer” “early detection”, cancer breast treatment, breast cancer rehabilitation, breast cancer palliation, educate women “breast cancer”, diagnose “breast cancer” awareness, “CT scan” “breast cancer”, ultrasound “breast cancer”, biopsy breast, mri “breast cancer”, lumpectomy awareness, “follow-up” mammogram, “breast cancer” research money, Society of Breast Imaging, “Breastcancer.org”, Komen for the Cure, National Cancer Institute breast, The American Cancer Society breast, Mayo Clinic breast, Avon Foundation for Women breast

Based on these keywords, we scoured the web and our database and uncovered the top 15 list of influencers in breast cancer awareness. Questions? You can check out an explanation of Traackr’s methodology here, or don’t hesitate to contact us on twitter @traackr, leave a comment on this post, or even respond on our Facebook group. For additional details on our product, you can always visit our website as well!

We hope after checking out the list, you might be inspired to save a life. It’s really easy, just check out Passionately Pink for the Cure and see how you can help in the fight against Breast Cancer.

Here at Traackr we decided to have some fun and get in the Halloween spirit a little early with the creation of our Halloween Party Plans influencer list. We figured it’s never too early to start party-planning, so be sure to check out these top influencers to get the best ideas for throwing that perfect haunted bash.  Also, to illustrate our new dynamic list functionality, we’ll be refreshing the list mid-October so be sure to check back to see if the rankings have changed or any new influencers pop up.

Lastly, we can’t reveal too much now, but be on the look-out for another special October list – think pink!

If you haven’t noticed (and we hope you have), we’ve turned up our blogging a notch over the past month and we’re now back on the band-wagon for our monthly segment – Influencer of the Month. For April we decided to take a closer look at the subject of one of our earlier posts – YouTube sensation JuicyStar07.

Who is JuicyStar07?

Dubbed JuicyStar07 almost two years ago, Blair Fowler is a happy-go-lucky 17-year-old from northeast Tennessee. She is best known for her YouTube beauty and review channel, which currently has more than 16 million channel views and 300,000 subscribers. That’s quite the reach for someone who hasn’t even graduated high school yet – and has only been in the game for two years!

In addition to her main YouTube channel, Blair currently has three blogs, two Twitter accounts, another YouTube account, and a Facebook fan page. (By the way, you can check out JUICYSTAR07′S TRAACKR PROFILE here). One interesting note is that her blogs are rarely updated and she isn’t as active on her additional social media platforms as she is on her YouTube channel. Maybe it is because they all lack the personal and lively touch that appeals to her video subscribers…or maybe she’s just too busy trying out all those beauty products and shopping!

Blair’s inspiration behind her videos actually came from her older sister, Elle, otherwise known as AllThatGlitters21, who already had her own YouTube make-up reviews and tips channel. Although it seems like they have highly competitive channels, they seem to maintain a good relationship – personally and professionally. In this Good Morning America interview, the sisters were featured shopping at Forever 21 together.

Labeled as a “Tween Tycoon,” Blair has already hired a Hollywood agent, secured a YouTube partnership to pocket a cut of her channel’s ad revenue AND appeared in Seventeen magazine. Now if that doesn’t scream influence, think about this: Blair and her YouTube channel have become so popular, she left high school and is finishing her remaining time of high school at home so she can devote more time to her show!

Even with all of this attention and fortune, the coolest part about Blair is probably that at such a young age she truly seems to understand the power of her influence and where it comes from – her fans. She pledges to only talk about products that she would spend her own money on and always abides by FCC laws, letting everyone know when she is engaging in a paid sponsorship.

So what’s next for Blair and her sister? We’re not sure, but we do know to keep a look-out for their seven-year-old sister who could be next up in the Fowler beauty review force!

With all the hoopla going on about SXSW we simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to show off our sweet A-List skills and bring you a public list of the Top SXSW Music Influencers. With hundreds of musical acts showcasing their talent on over eighty stages in downtown Austin, we knew the buzz would be huge.

After compiling the data, we can honestly say that we were surprised with the results. Who would have thought that a political journalist, everyone’s favorite gossip columnist, a well-known public television station (not usually associated with music) and not one, but two marketing pros would make a music list?

See the list for yourself here. In the meantime, be sure to follow the top influencers via Traackr’s SXSW Music Twitter list (@traackr/sxsw-music-influencers). Once you’ve seen the list, tell us what you think – did you love it? Hate it? Let us know!