Recently, three companies have begun to explore the value of a social network. The big questions is, who cares?
Well, I think I might if it get’s me free shit.
Our friends over at Freedom & Partners just launched PushKart, a new software platform that analyzes your social network and assigns you a social net worth.
They claim to have a custom algorithm that works behind the scenes to look at various elements of your online social life – sounds like voodoo to me. But I like magic, so read on.
To determine your value, PushKart looks at the size of your social network, the types of conversations you have and how active you are. The software even analyzes what conversations are most relevant to your social network —I guess the idea being that if the chatter in your network slants to technology, tech brands would be most relevant to you and your network?
Eventually, PushKart will likely enable brands to ask you to be advocates for them. In return you will get access to a special deal or an enhanced deal. PushKart’s premise is: you tell friends --> unlock deals --> enjoy rewards. It’s simple and pretty cool – it’s still very much in beta and they are looking for help and ideas.
Another company we have partnered with recently is Vitrue. They have launched the social page evaluator. It attempts to measure ROI for brands who have created a facebook fan page. I ran the Travelocity page through and it stacked up pretty well against other brands.
Virtue’s evaluator includes a couple interesting bits of functionality. Like ‘fan-tasize,’ which is a configuration tool that lets you see what your page could be worth. Plus, a compare tool that lets you look at how a brand stacks up against other brands. There is also a nice tips section for creating and managing a brand page. Social Evaluator
Yet another cool product is being developed here in our back yard, Argyle Social. I attended a VC event the other week and caught wind of their offering – a way to measure social media effectiveness. Argyle received a grant from NC IDEA in January this year to start developing their social platform. Hopefully they will be stopping by at the agency next week so we can exchange ideas.
Now is trend time for these types of tools as people grasp for new ways to deliver and measure social media campaigns. There are plenty of expensive Rolls Royce platforms that claim to measure all this stuff but I expect to see the innovation and new products come from smaller more progressive companies.
What do you think? Can you place a value on a social network?