Even though summer may be ending, we still have something to celebrate – the launch of TRAACKR subscription! AND we are offering any TRAACKR client (new or existing) 20% off any new project launched in our A-List Platform for the month of September!
As you can probably tell, it’s been a very busy season at TRAACKR. We have spent our summer scouring the web for top influencers and further building our A-List application into the web’s most robust Influencer Platform.
TRAACKR’S SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
We are very excited to release the first version of TRAACKR’s subscription platform with two major new features:
DYNAMIC A-LISTS
In order to match the ever-changing and evolving influencer landscape, all TRAACKR A-LISTS are now dynamic and fluid.
What this means is that TRAACKR clients will now see their A-LISTS refreshed on a weekly basis. Updated scores, adjusted influencer rankings, new influencers and refreshed content every week.
With dynamic TRAACKR A-LISTS, you will always be up-to-date on those who have the greatest impact on the success of your campaigns or business.
INFLUENCER MONITORS
Are you tired of monitoring every online mention of your brand and manually trying to understand which ones matter? TRAACKR’s Influencer Monitors enable you to filter the noise by those who matter most.
TRAACKR’s Influencer Monitors track the influencers on each of your A-LISTS and allow you to discover and measure their mentions of your brand over time. On a weekly basis, you can see how many mentions your A-LIST generated; which influencers are talking about you (and which are not); what they’ve said; and where they’ve posted. Over time, your Influencer Monitor will track mentions of your brand and display it on a main heartbeat chart.
If you would like to learn how you can get started with TRAACKR and uncover those online contributors which matter most to you and your business, click here and we will schedule a demo.
We sincerely want to thank all of our new and old clients for your continued support and belief in TRAACKR – we couldn’t do it without you!
The question is, can we? Tom Rue, aka. True, is starting at Traackr and we’re very excited about it.
He drinks about 5 red bulls a day, so we know he won’t fall asleep on us, and he has two kids at home to keep him sane in the midst of Traackr work. Ok, maybe a 9 – and 8-year-old won’t keep him sane, but he loves them, so we had to mention them in here.
A few more things about Tom we thought you might find pretty cool:
Tom is a completely self-taught technologist. As a child, he had dyslexia and once he figured out he could read and write much better on a computer, he used technology for the rest of his formal education.
He’s really looking forward to overcoming the technology challenges of storing tons (literally) of influencer data.
Tom and I worked together some years back – for that matter, we went to hell and back together – so we anticipate his integration in the Traackr team to be a walk in the park…
Welcome to the team, Tom! We expect great things from you!
On a side note, it’s been a busy few months at Traackr with a lot of new hires, and we don’t anticipate slowing down anytime soon! Actually, we are still looking to hire a front-end developer. If you’re interested, or know anyone else that may be, be sure to get in contact with us.
In his blog post Seth Godin advocates that blogging makes no sense economically because it defies the basic logic of trade: this for that. There is no such exchange in blogging. In his words:
I think it’s more like Santa math. Santa flies around the world, giving stuff away, and for what? He earns gratitude, trust and friendship, that’s what. Sure, one day he might decide to license his image or try to sell you something. But right here, right now, gratitude, trust and friendship are plenty. Especially if you enjoy doing what you’re doing. Quid, no quo.
So, Seth’s advice is: go ahead and blog but don’t expect to get anything back.
In my humble opinion, Mr. Godin is dead wrong on this. This is a gross generalization of a very rich media that can be used for so many different purposes that inferring where bloggers see value in their activity (i.e. selling their products or services) is very limiting. Many people blog, participate in forums, tweet to build communities, share knowledge, assert an expertise, or many other value-creating reasons.
Now, if we limit the activity of blogging to those indeed interested in boosting their sales, Seth Godin is right that drawing a correlation between a blog post and sales leads is not an easy thing to do, though I’d argue not impossible at all, as Hubspot’s success has proven. They even coined the term inbound marketing to describe this activity. And here is the real quid pro quo (read misunderstanding): in this respect, blogs are marketing tools, not sales tools, and the ROI of blogging in such case has to use marketing metrics to assess success.
Not to point out the obvious, but this is exactly how Seth Godin himself very skillfully uses his blog…Go figure…
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:
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!
Just wanted to thank, Lucy – a new Traackr friend working for a UK-based business called Corporate Eye, who wrote a great blog post on Traackr’s A-List this morning. It’s always nice to see a customer (in this case a potential customer) articulating your value better than you do!
I really like Lucy’s “Gaining the Ear of the King” concept. Well, done…
Earlier this year, we worked with Honda UK and Brazil, a progressive, forward-looking PR agency, to create a social media strategy for launching the Honda Insight in the UK. Honda was facing a tremendous challenge: successfully launch a new car when worldwide car sales are at an all-time low and marketing budgets are slashed!
Honda UK responded creatively by taking their first major steps into Social Media. Their strategy was built around a sound INFLUENCER CAMPAIGN we helped develop.
This is one of the most successful campaigns Traackr has been involved with thus far, so we wanted to share some of the insights. We hope what we’ve shared here is helpful and (as always) we welcome all comments and questions.
STEP ONE: TRAACKR BUILDS HONDA’S TOP INFLUENCER LIST
Brazil and Honda understood that identifying the most valuable/important online influncers with whom they should speak was at the core of their social media PR outreach campaign: who would drive online conversations most effectively? Which sites do they use to communicate? What conversations are they interested in? Traackr’s proprietary influencer search and qualification technology was used to answer these questions and uncover a targeted list of the Top 100 influencers. These influencers were driving conversations around a variety of subjects, including hybrid vehicles, alternative energy, the environment, and green technology.
Honda UK was interested in finding those influencers who were most influential in the UK market. However, we discovered that many of the online opinion leaders influencing behavior in the UK were actually based outside the UK. Traackr’s search was able to identify and present these influencers, prompting Honda UK to coordinate a wider, international PR effort for their launch.
Traackr’s technology uncovered some very unconventional and interesting influencers for this campaign. We also gave Honda a clearer understanding of what types of conversations would impact the success of their launch as well as where those conversations were taking place. For example, Traackr found out that most influencers were already very active on Twitter (Twitter became mainstream in the UK a few weeks after the campaign), leading Honda to become one of the first major brands to actively participate on Twitter in the UK.
STEP TWO: HONDA UK, BRAZIL, AND TRAACKR COLLABORATE TO BUILD INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
For Brazil, one of the challenges of this engagement was the fact that the relevant influencers for the Insight covered a wide variety of topics and interests. As part of its influencer report, Traackr provided groupings of influencers organized by these various topics of interest. This information indicated in which conversations each influencer was most interested. Topics included general car talk, green energy & the environment, general technology, and a host of others. This report was the starting point of developing the influencer engagement strategy and communication plan.
Brazil led the development of a highly customized communication plan catering to specific influencers. By understanding each influencer as individuals, they were able to structure an offering and a message that would most appeal to each. This strategy went a long way in earning coverage. While Brazil developed the communication plan, Honda UK coordinated across countries, and continents, to make sure internationally-based influencers would be engaged.
As Brazil and Honda UK launched into the execution of the influencer engagement plan, Traackr provided weekly performance reports, allowing Brazil to instantly see the successes or failures of their approach. Based on these reports, the engagement strategies were adjusted, re-executed, and re-measured on a regular basis.
During the main engagement period, Traackr’s reports showed that mentions of the Honda Insight among the Top Influencers increased by 300% and estimated coverage increased by 675%!
Here are just a few examples of coverage that Honda received from influencers during the engagement period:
http://twitter.com/bobbyllew/statuses/1482332029
http://twitter.com/JoeSimpson/statuses/1417825662
RESULTS: INSIGHT LAUNCHES SUCCESSFULLY AND OVERTAKES PRIUS FOR #1 SELLING HYBRID IN THE UK
The ultimate results of the campaign were wildly positive. With very little mass-market spending, the Insight became the top selling hybrid vehicle in the UK.
Perhaps the results are best summarized here by Robert Clay, aka. @marketingwizdom, another key influencer.
The successful engagement of top influencers also resulted in unexpected positive outcomes, for example when Honda Motors (US) reached out to one of the top influencers identified by Traackr, they received coverage much beyond expectations.
STEP FOUR: NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS WITH TOP INFLUENCERS
A large part of this campaign’s success can be attributed to Honda’s and Brazil’s ability to understand that “exploiting” influencers for a single “hit-and-run” campaign is not an effective strategy. Honda is committed to continue their relationships with the top, most relevant influencers — reaching out for feedback, opening wider communication channels, etc. We commend both Honda UK and Brazil for their commitment to embrace social media and their capacity to turn the corner so quickly.
CONCLUSION
For us at Traackr, this partnership has proven very successful and very rewarding. A big part of this campaign’s success was due to the strong collaboration between the Client (Honda), the Agency (Brazil) and us. In this partnership, the Client effectively provided the resources and the brand direction; the Agency provided the executional skill and expertise; and Traackr provided the information and tools which allowed both the Client and the Agency to most efficiently and effectively carry out their strategy. In our experience thus far, this type of full collaboration is still scarce. We very much look forward to this continuing relationship as well as the development of similar partnerships with other clients of ours.
The promise of a silver bullet to approach this really complex issue is slowing down the development and adoption of social media by businesses, not accelerating it.
So let me call it as it is: measuring the ROI of social media can’t be done. I’m actually quoting here the father of ROI measurement, Bob Kaplan (ref. #SMB10), inventor of the balanced scorecard.
Trying to calculate the ROI of social media is the same as trying to calculate the ROI of email or the road you drive to work on. The costs can be approximated but the benefits can’t. Their reach is too broad and too many other factors are at play to even to list them all, let alone attempt to measure profits.
Maybe even more importantly than one’s inability to measure ROI for social media, the main problem of this ROI hype is that it fuels the idea that social media for businesses is an end in itself and can have its own P&L. It’s not, it’s a capability (or rather a very broad set of capabilities) that serves other business objectives and of course one should measure success associated to these business objectives.
I can’t tell you the number of clients of Traackr who asked me whether they should be on Facebook or Twitter. My answer is invariably the same: what are you trying to achieve?
There is no ROI associated to social media. There is an ROI associated to business objectives and social media can help achieve some (many?) of them.
The decision whether to invest in social media doesn’t lie in an excel spreadsheet, rather it’s a leap of faith and a belief by some business leaders that they are better off with it than without it. The tipping point for companies is based on risk tolerance, peer pressure and critical mass, not on a dubious ROI calculation.
Boston, MA – April 29, 2009 – Traackr, Inc., an online influence measurement company, announced today their move into services for Marketing and PR Professionals. Traackr has been known for their community of high-reach bloggers, reviewers and other mavens, who affect the thinking and buying opinions of thousands of people. As marketing shifts from mass to collaborative, Traackr’s new services make strong social media results available to large and small companies.
“4.6 million Americans create web content on any given day, but not all online contributors are equal,” notes CEO Pierre- Loïc Assayag. “Online influencers are affecting buying decisions at a growing pace – and Traackr is on the frontlines helping businesses make the transition from “paid” to “earned” media.”
Traackr uses a proprietary approach to collect large quantities of data on the social web and identify the most influential individuals in their community or market segment. Focused parameters can be set by clients to help them measure reach, buzz and relevance, and create a complete picture of their micro-market. Traackr’s products and services include Online Influencer Reports, Influencer Tracking and Updates, Engagement Strategies and Campaign Performance Reports.
“Traackr’s new services will let professional marketers reach motivated audiences across all social media platforms via the opinions of the appropriate influencers in those markets. Our clients have experienced immediate results using directly actionable information we provide,” concludes Mr. Assayag.
Today, the Traackr team is proud to announce the release of our new website. Beyond our cool looking new web pages, our new site represent Traackr’s new Social Media Services for Marketing and PR Professionals.
After months of working on our new offerings and partnering with corporate marketers and communication agencies to fine tune it, Traackr is coming out of the woods and making public our new business vision, approach and solutions.
So, go and check out our new site and tell us what you think!
For our loyal Traackr users, no reason to panic: you can still log in to your account from any page on the new site to get into familiar territory. Though we should warn you that our user site is also about to get a major facelift soon. Stay tuned!
I really like the metaphor she uses of a gas that is invisible yet everywhere, hard to contain and that occupies the whole volume of a void space. I would only challenge the scope of her statement that I find too restrictive: the social web as a whole (meaning all online user generated content), not just the social network component, is ALREADY behaving this way and filling the void of antiquited processes and unaddressed needs by online communities.
Charlene uses Amazon as an example of the deepening penetration of the power of users over brands. This is not the future, this is today.
The power of this metaphor also goes to show the reason why efforts to contain and control the social web are bound to fail.
As an example, Apple has tried to control the review process for iPhone Apps in iTunes. Results? iPhone reviews take place elsewhere: blogs, YouTube, and even on Twitter.
Conclusion? The social web is like air: if brands like Apple don’t provide online users with the tools to express themselves, read unedited content, and conduct their own fact checking on authorship, then these conversations will take place elsewhere.
