Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

BuzzGain – Why I like it.

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In honor of my good friend, Mukund Mohan, whose interview in the Experts in the Industry series is coming up later today, I thought it was about time to do a quick post about BuzzGain, the company he co-founded with PR 2.0 guru, Brian Solis. In full disclosure, I’m on Mukund’s advisory board which means that you now know that I can’t be completely unbiased in this post. But if you know anything about me, you know that if I’m not passionate about something, I don’t write about it.

By way of background, BuzzGain is “an online service for discovering and connecting with the people who will help your business thrive in today’s social economy – where attention is a precious commodity.” It also allows companies – big and small – to find “long tail” communities where hidden influencers (or detractors) may live. The tool is able to look across traditional online media, blogs and other social sites like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter.
What inspired me to write this post is that our team at Powered has recently received demos from “listening service” providers like BuzzGain, Radian6 and coming next week, Techrigy. What makes our selection difficult is that I have friends at all three companies and like what I’ve seen so far of BuzzGain and Radian6. In BuzzGain’s case, I’m realizing that while they are in the same category of Radian6 and Techrigy, they really are an animal unto themselves.
Here are three things I like about BuzzGain’s offering that help differentiate it from other listening or “do-it-yourself” PR services:
  • Ability to get detailed information on blogs including their reach, search engine rankings, readership trends, post frequency, contact information and related/ relevant blogs
  • Provision of contact information on main stream media reporters with their email, beat information related to my campaign and their areas of coverage 
  • Sentiment analysis and tonality including positive, negative posts, news mentions and comments in a single place
I also like that Mukund and Brian are open about not only their shortcomings but are also transparent about their pricing. According to Mukund, pricing is $99 per month for companies under $100m in revenue, $100m – $1 billion is $500 per month, those with over $1b is sales is $1,000 per month.
Brian and Mukund have also responded quickly to initial feedback. See a step by step walk through of their new “user feedback” driven features.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txh5pdHK3Eo]
Have you tried out BuzzGain yet? If so, how do you like it?

Experts in the Industry: Warren Sukernek (24 of 45)

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In the world of social media, I have friends and then I have “Friends.” Warren Sukernek – Director of Content Marketing, Radian6, falls into that second camp in a big way. I can’t remember how we first connected but it was on Twitter early last spring. Since then, we’ve chatted regularly via e-mail, direct message, phone and in person at one of Mzinga’s semi-famous BBQs last summer (picture below). Oh yeah, he’s also a contributor to our group Red Sox blog which makes for a good time during the season.
But enough about us… let’s get onto the questions:
In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I’m an online marketer, focused on establishing relationships with customers that are measurable and achieve results. Because the response is measureable, the results tell me when I’m good or sometimes, not. Hopefully, more often, they are good.
How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
 I got into social media because I found it a very effective way to meet, network and learn from  business leaders, authors, and people with common interests beyond borders.
If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
It would have to be Twitter.  The growth has been phenomenal, even without a public business plan.  There is still a lot of upside as few companies have yet to capitalize on its ability to listen to customers, engage, and meet their needs.  Probably no surprise since no only am I a big user and fan, but I also write the Twittermaven blog. 
Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
 Obviously, the popular choice is President Obama.  But Warren Buffett is a business leader that is pretty inspiring. Sustainable longterm success and always having the conviction to do the right thing, even if it is against conventional wisdom.
As we discussed on that excellent blog post you wrote a few months ago, we don’t have passion for many commodities like toothpaste, ball bearings, or drain cleaner.  However, there is a lot of passion for how the products make us feel or what they do for us. So for a community focused on laughter and smiles sponsored by a toothpaste company, I’m in.
Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
I get to write on Aaron Strout’s blog on any topic I want? Then you know it’s got to be about sports and the Red Sox.  I can’t believe that pitchers and catchers are reporting in just a few weeks! That makes up for another dismal year from the same old Jets.  Anyway, the Sox seem to be well-constructed this year. Even with weak catching, I am convinced that we will beat the Yankees and Rays to win the World Series in 2009.  And in social media fantasy baseball, I am going to avenge my loss to Jaffe last year and crush him.

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