Although the "Likes" are loved, companies have a harder time deciphering who their biggest influencers are when Facebook fans start piling up. Active engagement is key to building meaningful buzz, however — buzz that best bolsters a brand and helps spread the right marketing message.
Luckily, Northeastern-born startup Splashscore is stepping up to help companies discover who their 100 most engaged Facebook fans are. As a platform focused on rewarding influential consumers, the team's new Fan Grader, released Friday, is a natural next step.
Users can simply enter in their name, email address and Facebook page URL, and Splashscore will send a free report detailing the total engagement created by their brand's top 100 fans. Brands are then able to contact those top fans via a private Facebook message, or download the report as an Excel file for further analysis.
Take BostInno's top fans:
As Christopher Wolfel, Splashscore's VP of partnerships and marketing, pointed out, Liking a page is easy, but it can be difficult to tell who's repeatedly engaging. Giving a brand the ability to discover who those people are means they can then better engage them to amplify their effect and ensure they continue interacting.
On the flip side, if fans are posting negative comments, brands can better identify who they are and hopefully solve their concerns.
"We know Facebook — especially with its recent changes — can be hard, so we built Grader as a tool to compliment our Influencer Activation Engine and help marketers better understand how their fans are interacting with them," Wolfel told BostInno via email.
The Influencer Activation Engine is Splashscore's patent-pending algorithm that provides businesses with, as the team describes, "an army of advocates who generate engagement around topics relevant to their brand." Through that, the company claims to produce 20-times the clicks, Likes and leads than standard posts or ads.
Since we first wrote about Splashcore in late 2011, the company has grown to more than 100,000 influencers, reaching 90 million people a week. Big-name brands like Cuisinart, the Miami Dolphins and Taste of Nature have also started working with the startup, co-founded by Northeastern alumni Lyle Stevens and Sean Naegeli.
The more brands on board, the better for the everyday Facebook user. Why? Because by simply receiving Likes or comments on Facebook posts, Splashscore will dole out rewards, whether a free healthy snack bar or the chance to win $100 to TJ Maxx.
And is anyone going to say "no" to free rewards? We didn't think so.
