The PR profession has long been in the game of identifying and developing 'mutually beneficial relationships with' key influencers in targeted industries relevant to the companies we represent (whether as in-house counsel or as an agency client).
However, as the social web continues to increase in terms of numbers and usage, the process of identifying influencers can be quite daunting.
From a public relations standpoint, numbers of connections are fine but they do not necessarily determine 'influence'.
In other words, someone might have thousands and thousands of followers on Twitter, for instance, but very little actual influence, while others with smaller followings might wield considerable sway.
There are dozens of monitoring tools around that are useful to varying degrees depending on what you're after, but as far as I'm aware none have really taken the PR industry by storm.
Maybe that's about to change?
Introducing PeerIndex...
So it's with interest I note the beta launch yesterday of PeerIndex, a Twitter-centric application that, according to Fast Company, measures a person's social network standing and influence on the web.
Fast Company describes PeerIndex as the "140-character version of the Google vanity search".
Yes indeed I think that's an apt description and no doubt many tweeters will use the app for that very reason, but for PR people I'm tipping it can offer a lot more than that.
PeerIndex claims to be "the first company ranking individual social authority" across the social web.
Opinion leaders Vs merely opinionated
According to the company's news release: "PeerIndex can identify from millions of users the opinion leaders from the merely opinionated."
"PeerIndex currently indexes 1.7m of the most salient users on Twitter, and adds an additional 10 to 20,000 per day. Any user can add their own Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or blog profile directly and ensure that all their social content is plugged into the system to be analysed," the news release reads.
"By engaging in the ranking process this ensures that the value of every individual's authority is recognised globally by bloggers, media, brands, employers and other followers."
According to PeerIndex's website, PeerIndex was founded in 2009 by Azeem Azhar, an Internet entrepreneur and investor who previously worked at the Economist and Guardian; Bill Emmott, former editor-in-chief of The Economist; and Ditlev Schwanenflugel, formerly of McKinsey & Co.
Early days...
It's still early days yet (the project is in beta) but PeerIndex may well be worth keeping an eye on.
Let's face it, being able to measure an individual's influence and authority on a particular subject, if you can get it right, is 'gold' as far as PR intelligence is concerned!
Give it a go, let us know your thoughts!
Further reading:
PeerIndex: Ranking Your Online Influence? (The Guardian UK).
PeerIndex Tries Ranking Opinion Formers With Social Crawling (paidcontent:UK).
