The Faster we go, the rounder we get
For any company that operates within - or ever near -the Twittersphere, this has already been a pretty big week. And it's only Tuesday.
Take a look at the last couple of days - there's been policy statements, product releases, product announcements, truth-telling and much more. It's hardly a surprise considering that it's the leadup to:
CHIRP
Fred Wilson's AVC.com blog is always a great read, for so many reasons. But last week, the Twitter (and Foursquare) investor really opened up about 'hole-filling' in the Twitter economy. If you haven't read that article, you can find it here. Basically, Fred outlines the areas that Twitter considers to be 'core' and those areas he considers to be 'external' and sit on top of Twitter.
Discovery is one of those areas that Fred feels is something best handled by value-add external companies. Companies like LiveIntent.
Search is one of the areas that Fred feels is something best handled by Twitter, not external companies.
Why do we point this out? Funny you should ask. Yesterday morning, IdeaLab launched a new company called 'Tweetup'. Tweetup means to help you search for the best Tweets and Tweeters. How can that not be done better by Twitter?
Tweetup (full disclosure a semi-sister company by way of our investor First Round Capital), aims to utilize search to highlight 'the best tweets and tweeters' and to 'help boost your tweets'.
LiveIntent is different than Tweetup: we help publishers and advertisers develop engaged audiences that amplify and act on their tweets. How do we do this?
First, LiveIntent helps consumers discover and follow the best tweeters based on a mix of contextual and influencer data from many sources. LiveIntent is not about juicing your search results - it's about helping consumers find the best content creators and initiating long-tail relationships. Our system rank-orders feeds and personas based on Klout score - but also how people interact with them after the follow. Did someone 'unfollow' after a few days? That has an effect on the quality score of the tweeter, and if this happens enough, this persona won't show up in the window.
Second, LiveIntent helps publishers drive pageviews and ad impressions by introducing their feeds and personas to site visitors who, unlike with Tweetup, can follow multiple feeds without leaving the publisher's site. When consumers follow through LiveIntent, they stay on the publisher's site. No leaking users. No prematurely ended sessions. And return visits when they read the tweets of their new favorite sources. @mentions and Retweets are just some of the benefits of these engaged relationships.
Third, LiveIntent helps advertisers and brands connect with consumers who are interested in their products and services through contextual introductions. When you visit, for example, the Intel communities site, you can expect to be introduced not only Intel, but also their strategic partners like HP, Dell and Acer. That's contextual. That's what you expect and that's what we deliver
You can buy followers using LiveIntent through Sponsored Introductions, but you can't buy your way to popularity if you don't add value. Through LiveIntent's Sponsored Introductions, your brand can develop quality relationships with consumer audiences while providing those new followers and fans with the best content available on the social web. And great offers through your tweets.
There's so much more to the LiveIntent experience than what we can put in one blog post. Visit us and find out:
LiveIntent - it's about discovery, not search.
People Recommendation vs. Content Recommendation
Charlie O'Donnell, of First Round Capital, on how he'd love to see a system that recommends a social graph based on personal and professional interests.
Content recommendation for years has been a startup graveyard. Sure, a few companies like Sphere/Surphace and StumbleUpon have been able to get out—but the number of folks who have tried to solve this is vast. I feel it’s sort of like the carnival basketball game...Read more
LiveIntent at DigiDay: Social in LA
On March 9th, LiveIntent's COO Dave Hendricks (shown below) moderated a panel at DM2 Media's Digiday:Social conference at the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles, CA.
The event attracted more than 500 attendees from brands including Ford, Zappos and CitySearch. Also featured were many speakers from leading social media technology companies and consultancies such as Facebook, BigFuel, 33Across, r2i and Razorfish. 
Dave moderated a panel titled “The New Social Media Currency,” which featured Eric Wheeler, CEO of fellow First Round Capital portfolio company 33Across; Paul Botto of BrickFish; Chas Salmore of MWKS and Mike "JB" John Baptiste of Peeset. Dave used his unique method of panel management, which he calls “Extremenation,” to engage panel members in an authentic, open dialogue without the usual 'me-too' routine that can be so prevalent in panel discussions.
The audience was treated to a lively conversation around the concepts of Social Engagement, including questions around whether these concepts can be measured. Tweets during the panel underscored the assertion that, unlike affiliate, search, or email marketing, there is no reliable, routine or generally acceptable measurement in social media today. Not satisfied with that answer, the audience got into the act and the conversation on stage spread to the floor with questions focusing on ROI and inquiries as to whether purely financial measures were adequate in measuring the impact of social media on brands. The panel ended with Dave exhorting the audience to “open up their campaigns to scrutiny and share them with the press” so that social media marketing could come out of the shadows and join other forms of advertising in the “measurable and meaningful” category.
Only time will tell if members of the community start sharing their success stories so that we all can get a better handle on what the baseline and definition of success is in social media.
Visit DM2 Media for highlights, blogs and video of the conference.
What does LiveIntent do for you?
LiveIntent is focused on revolutionizing the process of discovery. As consumers of media, we are faced with a million choices every day. What do we choose to read? What do we listen to? What do we watch? And in so-called social media, who do we follow?
By making these choices easier, LiveIntent solves a problem that’s made adoption and utility of social media harder we like it to be.
Our technology connects consumers with the right personalities and personas within social media using sophisticated predictive algorithms, contextual data and user behavior. What does this mean for you? It means that you don’t get matched with the wrong accounts and feeds.
Our flexible ‘discovery window’, served on the pages of the publisher sites that you visits, presents you with not one, but several choices of interesting and relevant personalities directly related to the site that you are on. You have a choice: follow who you want. But you have choice. And we listen to your choices, and learn.
Most sites offer you the opportunity to follow their main ‘feed’. Many sites have more than one feed. One might be the site’s main feed- the one you associate most with the site. But many of these same sites have other feeds – personas – that contribute to the site and may be more relevant to you and your interests.
LiveIntent’s mission is to introduce you to the right personalities. Unlike typical list systems that present you with 50 personas to follow, we curate the site’s selection and combine it with expert and interesting ‘organic’ personas and specifically tailored ‘sponsored introductions’ from brands that you are likely to be interested in following.
The result is a more engaging and dynamic experience that’s based on your feedback and interaction. It’s not a recommended list – it’s LiveIntent.