Blekko Makes Influencing the Influencers Easy

Custom influencer searches for PR and marketing professionals who lead brand-reputation programs

Blekko is a new search engine that includes some time saving features for PR and marketing professionals who want to track a narrow set of online publications or domains. By allowing you to select only the domains or pages that you want searched, it helps you stay focused on the people who really influence your business and reduces the spam in your coverage scans.

Blekko uses what it calls Slashtags that allow you to "slash in" or "slash out" what you want in a search. This easy-to-use process allows you to create a complicated search, publish it for others to use and then repeat it quickly. For example, a Blekko user named Max created a list of advertising publications. If you wanted to do a search to see if your company was mentioned in AdAge, Adweek or MediaPost, you would search in Blekko like this:

Company Name /max/advertising

That string searches for "Company Name" using Max's predefined list of advertising domains. A snip of those publications can be seen below.


Instead of getting back a bunch of spam blogs like I do with a Google search, Blekko only gives me back results from the 21 publications that matter in the advertising and media industry. If you add a /date Slashtag, it will sort those results by date instead of relevancy. Another great tool when you are monitoring the web daily for news on you or your competitors.

Additionally, Blekko allows you to publish these searches in RSS so you can share them with your teammates or with your client. Pop them into Google Reader and you have a searchable archive of your news that is easy to read, process and report.

The current downside I'm finding with Blekko is that some of the less-popular domains are only searched every 14 days. Hopefully Blekko will address that issue as they come out of beta and put together the computing power to crawl the Internet faster.

Blekko has been in a super stealth mode for more than a year. They seem to be on solid financial ground with $20 million in financing. I'm not going to call them a Google killer because that would surely doom them. They are building some steam and they gave Robert Scoble a peek at their product in this long, but informative 45 minute YouTube video.




Blekko is really a lot more than the simple features that I've outlined. For example, the SEO rankings are radically different because they are completely open. I'll leave it to others to give you the feature-by-feature review. If you're a PR or marketing person managing the reputation of a brand, you really must give Blekko a try.

You may find that my Blekko links in this post don't work for you. You may need to get an invite to Blekko before you can access them. On Twitter, Follow @blekko and then ask for an invite and they'll direct message you in a day or so. Or you can email your request to scoble+at+ blekko.com (I lifted this address from the end of the Robert Scoble video).

Socializing Loyalty with Foursquare

Location-based services hold the promise of targeted advertising and ultra-relevant content for everyone. Are these services just high-tech coupons or is there a larger promise? Tristan Walker, VP of business development, from Foursquare sees something much deeper. He calls it socializing loyalty. This isn't a Tweet that I checked into Nola's with four friends, this is a way to tie a brand's existing loyalty program directly into their customer's social graph. Imagine a check-in at your favorite book store that occurs when your credit card is swiped. Or even better, a check-in that is tied to the book you just purchased. In an instant, you receive your loyalty points from the book publisher, bookstore and American Express. With your permission, that information is then shared with your friends. Instead of pulling out my phone and checking in and showing it to the clerk, all this occurs through the credit card payment systems that connect directly to the Foursquare system. All secure and all measurable.

From a brand's perspective, that engagement is very deep. If you have enough affinity for the brand to grant them access to your social graph, it is clear that you are a brand advocate. The customer also becomes a rich vector to connect the brand to like-minded customers. You are unlikely to grant a random taqueria the right to publish on your behalf, but you might trust French Laundry. Even everyday experiences such as visits to your favorite coffee shop or gym could trigger loyalty points and generate additional impressions for a brand.

The concept of loyalty programs and publishing your check-ins is not new, but the combination in a familiar mobile experience is different. Point solutions pop-up for all sorts of individual brands or specific campaigns, but they don't sit on everyone's mobile phone like Foursquare. In this scenario, Foursquare is much more like a platform than an mobile phone app. It allows for brands to build their loyalty programs around a consumer experience that guarantees engagement and relevancy.

We've seen other purchase broadcasting services go awry so good privacy control is needed, but people are quickly warming to the idea that they can get more from a brand if they are willing to share their experience with their friends.

This idea can change the market because instead of keeping Foursquare locked into brands with physical locations, they can now work with every brand in the store. Loyalty is extended beyond the bookstore to now include every brand, publisher and product in that store.

The concept of socializing loyalty with a location-based service such as Foursqure is still without a concrete, real-life example. I understand that Foursquare may be changing that soon. I'd love to see a major brand tap into their existing loyalty program and reward Foursquare users based on their past purchases. Imagine walking into the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay and upon checking in you are upgraded to a bigger room or treated to free marshmallows and chocolate by the fire. I know Robert Scoble would love that since he is the Ritz mayor.

Now that I've met Tristan Walker, I was able to take the first step toward getting my Foursquare stalker badge. Hint: Tristan's business card has the pizza symbol.