BuzzLogic Introduces On-Demand Software to Identify Influencers in Social Media

SAN DIEGO at DEMOfall 06 - September 25, 2006 - BuzzLogic announced today the launch of a new on-demand software service that enables marketers to identify who is influential within specific conversations taking place in social media such as blogs. BuzzLogic is introducing its new software at the DEMOfall ‘06 conference, one of the premier venues for launching new companies and products.

“Social media may soon rival mainstream media in impact, yet there’s been no meaningful way to understand or untangle it,” said Rob Crumpler, BuzzLogic CEO. “Influence is the most meaningful way to understand social media. Through the lens of influence, social media is transformed from chaotic tangle to manageable channel.”

BuzzLogic calculates and surfaces the influencers who are shaping and driving specific conversations in social media with algorithms that analyze relationships, such as who connects to whom, about what is happening and who is listening. Marketing and communications practitioners can use these insights to understand influence and who wields it, to manage their brands, reputations, products and customer relationships.

“Identifying and focusing on influencers is a basic tenet of marketing,” said Chris Shipley, executive producer of DEMO. “It’s a logical next step to apply this idea to social media. With its approach to identifying the bloggers who are shaping and driving conversations in social media, BuzzLogic has the potential to lead a new category of marketing tools and best practices.”

“BuzzLogic promises to do for brand communications and customer satisfaction, public relations and press relations what web metrics have done for online advertising,” said David Churbuck, vice president, Global Web Marketing for Lenovo and an early beta tester of the BuzzLogic service. “BuzzLogic is the first blog tool with the capability to truly enable my vision of proactive customer relations, where the operator can use the discoveries from the tool to change internally and externally in nearly real time.”

“Our beta customers tell us the tools currently available to them fall far short of what they really need, and that they have been left to make strategic decisions based on incomplete or out-of-date information, and with no ability to act,” said Crumpler. “Its clear marketers need a new generation of tools to help them make sense of social media, and to enable them to engage in meaningful ways. BuzzLogic solves this need.”

BuzzLogic differs significantly from first generation tools, such as blog search engines, which can only tell marketers who is popular, not who is influential. BuzzLogic also differs significantly from the brand monitoring and analysis services that can tell marketers what a sample of bloggers was thinking a few weeks ago, not what is happening right now. It differs from both in its ability to support, track and measure engagement.

The BuzzLogic service is built around a monitor – map – measure – engage model, supporting each of the functions marketers need to stay on top of potential crises and take advantage of emerging opportunities. A key feature of the service is the ability to draw social maps of influencers in a conversation, essentially a critical path of the relationships between key influencers. BuzzLogic also enables marketers to engage with key influencers through the service, and to monitor and track the results of their actions.

In addition to outbound marketing and communications practitioners, market research and customer service managers are expected to be early adopters of the BuzzLogic service. “By being better listeners, practitioners can be better marketers,” said Crumpler. “We’re providing a unique ability for marketers to rest a finger on the pulse of social media and to take action on what they’re hearing.”

BuzzLogic is delivered as an on-demand service. It is designed with marketers in mind, with an intuitive dashboard that is quick-to-use and easy-to-navigate. Users only need to enter simple search queries and have access to the Internet to use the service.

“Understanding and engaging with social media should not be the exclusive purview of big companies with big budgets,” said Crumpler. “We will be very disruptive in this market, with very low entry level pricing that allows small and medium size companies to compete on an equal footing with big companies, and that helps big companies make their budgets go further.”

BuzzLogic is at station 47 in the DEMOfall ’06 Pavilion.

About BuzzLogic

BuzzLogic is a San Francisco-based on-demand software company that enables marketers to identify who is influential within specific conversations taking place in social media, and to use this information to better manage their brands, reputations, products and customer relationships.