Video: BuzzLogic tracks and measures influence

Influence is powerful and tricky to measure. It's also just one component of getting the most out of social media. Influence is one of my favorite components because it give you insight into how to reach out to the "best" people.

Other measurements are more historical (like demographics, geographics, etc...) but most of the people I talk to are still at the point of needing a historical view first and aren't ready to jump into influencing yet. You can get yourself into trouble trying to influence the influencers if you don't do it right (check out http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/social_netw...).

I'd pose another question as well - having figured out the influencers, how much effect can someone really have on influencing the influencers?

Regards,
Aaron
_______________________________
Aaron C. Newman
President/Founder
Techrigy, Inc.
cell: 646-280-5168
http://www.techrigy.com

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Aaron

You can influence the influencers, there's and art and science to it. I see it in action EVERY day.

J.O,
I think Buzzlogic has a great product, especially the "social maps." The problem for us, an agency, is that we're still trying to get smaller brands to get on the social media bandwagon. For them the service can be costly ($1000+/month). We'd like to work the BL, but they needed us to sign a year-long contract to get started and we couldn't afford to do that without some risk-sharing (let us use the service for prospecting and then we'd sign up clients as they saw the benefits in action). That said, if I were an internal marcom or PR rep I wouldn't hesitate to buy and USE the service. I love their interface too, by the way.

Scott

I like the idea that it is an "art and science". That (I think) was my point. Without a delicate and steady hand, influencing an influencer can backfire.

We are working with BL on several client engagements. I think their weak point is that the whitelist of blogs is incomplete, and BL is not very forthcoming about what criteria goes into the creation of this white list. I have often found valid blogs outside of their tool, and have been concerned about what else I might be missing...

I really appreciate how hard it is for BuzzLogic to do what they are trying to do. While their lists need human intervention to clean them up, they provide a very useful service in terms of developing an initial idea of who's an influencer in any given area. Try to assemble that list by hand and you'll begin to understand that $1000 is a bargain.

Some great discussion around this topic arising here! As the new SVP of Products at Buzzlogic, I’ll chime in based on what I know of the exciting efforts underway here and what I've learned from working extensively with the blogosphere in my prior gig as CEO of Activeweave BlogRovR.

Though it's important and certainly more an art than a science as Aaron points out, “influencing the influencers” is not the only goal of engaging with the conversation ongoing in social media. Having an effect on the conversations taking place starts with having a voice, in participating and being a credible and responsive member of the loose social group involved. Listening and responding thoughtfully to what influencers have to say is the beginning of defining the dialectic itself both with influencers and everyone else who reading and creating content around them. BuzzLogic’s core thesis is that by focusing energy on the areas where topic-specific influence is the strongest, our clients can be more effective and focused across any social media marketing or outreach campaign.

Scott, glad you like our product! I appreciate your feedback here--as we continue to scale, our goal is to be able to bring value to marketers, PR professionals, and advertisers at every price point.

Tom, Mike, we know that depth of blogs we plumb is paramount for success, and we're working hard to substantially improve it. Thanks for your feedback!

After months of poking, prodding and harassing my higher-ups, we've just started our subscription to Buzz Logic and so far, I'm very impressed.

As an aside, I'd like to mention how difficult the process of researching our options was. Jeremiah - your blog was a great launching pad, but a number of the companies I contacted never responded to my RFI and other quoted us subscription rates north of $100K/year.

I have been investigating BuzzLogic for a vertical campaign designed to increase buzz (no pun intended) for a couple of portals. I have been having a hard time signing a deal to get started with them 1) because convincing my executives is hard in this market and a their lack of expertise in our specific vertical market. I found too much insistence on parallel verticals and not enough on the segment I work with. None the less I would like to get the opportunity to try them out and find their product engaging.

Hi, I have been trying to commission buzzlogic myself but have been astonished to hear their differential pricing. I am building a pan asian service across the English web at the moment. BuzzLogic has quoted me a price which is twice the price mentioned by you g it uys, it is $2000+ per month. I am based in the Indian Market at the moment where it is hard to justify a price point to marketers when you're still in the business of evangelizing the concept itself!

I guess this calls for a fair pricing mechanism, I was told that I was getting free services inclusive but seems that I was already paying way over the standard price.

I am impressed by their demo though, but yet to see the real service!

We are looking into a strategy for tracking our Social Media efforts. How does BuzzLogic perform through social networks like FB, Ning, MS, & YT?

Does it track the total performance of a content piece?

Thanks for all the info you've gathered in this blog as well. I'd really be interested in opening a dialog down the road as we are growing this division within our agency quite rapidly.

I don't know the scope of Buzzlogic, sorry.

We've several reports on the Forreester site that answer measurement (see links above in body of post)