At PeerIndex, we believe that each of us has value, worth and reputation that we build through our ties and connections. We also believe that social media is giving us a fantastic lens into the hidden capital, social capital, that we’ve each built with our online connections. The goal of PeerIndex is to help each of us understand, improve and benefit from this social capital.
Our focus at PeerIndex remains on the ‘magic middle’: That is, the ordinary person (like you or your friends) who has influence or expertise in a particular topic. Many of us are in the ‘magic middle’ because we are the people our friends turn to for advice on cars, or because we are the first to spot a new trend on the Web, or simply because we share the best recipes for brownies.
Social Media Democratises Influence
In a world of traditional media, where authority and influence is concentrated in the hands of the few – journalists, celebrities, politicians – the rest of us can easily be ignored. But what we, the magic middle, lack in reach, we make up for in expertise, trust and authenticity.
Of course, influence isn’t a singular quantity. Your sister may influence your choice of airline. But you may turn to your best friend for advice on movies. And so PeerIndex builds its understanding of influence from the topics – and communities of topics – you engage in.
Today we release a new look for PeerIndex, together with some changes to our key offering. These changes are designed to make your PeerIndex more accessible and easier to understand.
What we’ve done:
- Rebased our scoring by taking better consideration of the people you engage with.
- Brought topic information front and centre
- Provided richer data about who you engage with
- Visually redesigned – replacing our scores (previously in a yellow box) with a simpler blue identity
To simplify PeerIndex we’ve also streamlined some features, as announced previously the key one is groups. We found that while groups received a lot of traffic, they were only actively used by a small minority of our user base.
For those ‘power users’ who still want to build groups, we will be releasing a separate service called ‘PeerGroups’ in ten days time. PeerGroups will provide a better, more dedicated mechanism for tracking and networking with people with similar interests and spheres of influence. Previously created groups will be migrated over.
What Comes Next
Apart from the release of PeerGroups, we have some additional goodies coming along.
- These include:
- Enhanced topic pages: We’ve got some gorgeous things planned for topic pages to help you navigate topical influencers. These topic pages will be available in the next six weeks.
- Additional networks: We’ll be adding additional social networks in the next three months.
- A range of fantastic PeerPerks for topic influencers.
Check back regularly to make the most of your social capital!
Best,
Azeem Azhar
CEO, PeerIndex