The Most Public Index

by Kelly Wheeler

A while ago some of you might remember how I waxed on about a few of the most influential people and blogs operating online today. Here is part three of that little cheat guide.

Before I started these posts, the lovely GottaQuirk-fiend Kat asked me gently to please make sure that I clarified how I decided on these “Top Five Most Influential People/Blogs”. Apparently some people have been known to get mad over certain inclusions and exclusions and we have to cover our bases. In the last two posts I took the easy way out and let Google and other sites do the research for me, but it did get me thinking. Can we accurately judge who has a notable influence online?

And lo and behold, Google gave me the answer (how could I have doubted it?). There is actually a site that does just that – collates the most influential people online. NowPublic has launched the MostPublic Index and it is essentially a measure of any individual’s influence online. Voted as one of the top 5 most resourceful news sites in the world, NowPublic is a crowd sourced news network. The reporters come from all walks of life in 5,500 different cities, making NowPublic one of the most successful user participatory news sites in the world.

NowPublic is fully aware that a new breed of people is shaping the media environment – both online and off. Whether we like it or not, our favourite news station or anchor can now probably be rivalled in influence and effectiveness by a kid on Twitter. This has necessitated a new measure of who’s who in the media world and the MostPublic Index aims to be just that.

Leonard Brody, NowPublic’s CEO sums up their aims quite clearly:

“Today, there are innumerable new ways for one’s voice to be heard. The goal of the MostPublic Index is to measure who is currently most effective in broadcasting their own personal brand online, as well as identify emerging players.”

So How Do They Do It?

NowPublic have recognised that influence online is not all about the traffic to a site or blog, but rather more about how people are connected to each other and their readership through Social Media tools like YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook among many others. The team at NowPublic have hence created a formula that essentially measures how public an individual is and how extensive their influence. This formula is drawn from four different categories.

Online Visibility
Presence on User-Generated Content and Social Networking Sites
Interactivity and Accessibility
The “R” Factor: Presence on Microblogging Platforms such as Flickr, Twitter and Tumblr.

Statistics from each of these categories and from a variety of sources, including Facebook and Google, give the team a good idea of who is making waves online and then through a weighted scoring system this list in narrowed down to a top 50. This scoring system asks the following questions and has a dedicated point allocation for each answer (visit The MostPublic Index for more details on the points themselves).

1. How visible is the individual?

How many Google search results does the individual garner?
Where does the individual rank on Technorati?

2. How present is the individual in user-generated sites?

How many search results does the individual garner on YouTube?
How active is the individual on Facebook?
How many Facebook friends does the individual have?

3. Does the individual participate in micro-blogging?

How many microblogging tools does the individual use?
Does the individual use Twitter?

Number of Twitter updates
Number of Twitter followers

4. How interactive/accessible is the individual?

Does the individual offer a message board?
Does the individual offer their email address or a contact form?
Does the individual respond to posts or participate in online chat?

Potential?

At the moment, thanks to the vast scope of the Internet, this formula can only generate lists of influential people from specific areas. The current list released by NowPublic only features the top 50 most influential people in New York and it is doubtful that a world wide list could ever be feasibly collated. But this doesn’t make the practice useless - countries like South Africa that are much smaller than the US can realistically gather and benefit from such data. Imagine the possibilities for online marketers if you literally had a list of all the people, sites and blogs to target for certain campaigns to maximise exposure and results?

NowPublic intends to diversify this list into a virtual catalogue of the statistical who’s who of the online world. Grouping people into new categories based on their type of influence (political, pop culture etc) or their geographical location (most influential people in European cities), the result will be a selection of lists that will eventually cover the entire web. Is it reliable and statistically sound? Honestly? I have no idea (BA Major), but it looks like a more reliable method than my “Google it and hope the right type of page pops up” strategy that I employed in my last two posts. Either way, it is most definitely food for thought.

Now, go check your RSS reader! :)

2008/09/18 | permalink | comments (0) | trackbacks (0)

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Recent Comments

Kat on Engaging as a Company

I agree with you. There are some things that should ideally not be discussed by an employee in the public sphere.
Would a communications policy have stopped the said journo from speaking out? He/she must have known a huge risk was being taken? I suppose it's also an incredibly difficult thing to predict. The lack of control can be alarming.
I'm definitely interested in seeing a more specific list, so if you find it do share.
Thank you for your comments :). Here's hoping there's a good coffee shop close to you..
vincent on Engaging as a Company

I guess the mark of a well crafted brand starts at HR policy for new recruits - ensuring that they fit the brand's/corporate's persona. So in that sense yes you could argue that left to their own devices employees would, regardless of an online communications policy, communicate in a style the sponsor would approve of. Not sure if that's always the case but I'm inclined to agree with this generalization.
I think what is also important is that the individual writing within the bounds of a sponsor's site does so in a restricted locale. You can police your own domain if you're a corporate, you can't necessarily control the individuals mouth outside of it. For instance on twitter, personal blogs and forums. Owing to the nature of niche stardom you could argue that the employee comes to represent the brand, more so than that personifies the brand in organic conversation with consumers and would carry significant weight both within corporate sites and externally. Making some individuals very wary to write for their companies at all.
For instance in our not too distant past a prominent journo got the boot for publishing his gripes with his employers and their professional ability - he was promptly fired...He would no doubt have been policed on a company blog but owing to the fact that he chose to represent the company elsewhere he took his brand and the papers brand with him - dragging both through the mud as traipsed on towards epic-failuredom...
So to come back to a point, there is definitely a sense that the policies as listed above are quite ambiguous. Even you yourself suggest that requisite legalese is absent, and I have to assume that such legalese would include a fairly long list of do's and dont's. I have a list somewhere laying about which dictates in a very bland corporate fashion how to represent the brand in public - if I find it I will share it with you.
Perhaps its worthwhile to enforce points like "don't tell secrets" and my own favourite, "for the love of god don't gripe about the boss who you've publicly named online"...
That's my mental-riff for the day, I'm afraid I veered rather uncharitably off course but such is the nature of thought.
Now if only the company I worked for had some decent coffee!!
Kat on Engaging as a Company

Transparency is a key issue - as is allowing people to carve their own niche.
My thinking is that people engage with a personality - an individual personality - in conversation more than with a collective. It's just easier. A company personality surely reflects the people who work there as well as a crafted (constructed?) image that the stakeholders choose to present. While you want engagement it's not the same as speaking to an individual.
There are definite risks involved - but I would lean towards allowing people to carve a niche.
vincent on Engaging as a Company

Couldn't have said it better. Nice post, it is most certainly something corporates are going to struggle with. How much transparency is too much? Who should be allowed to represent a brand and to what extent should the individual be given the opportunity to carve their own niche rather than extol the virtues of the mother - brand?
Who knows. We shall soon see as this year pans out and we find out how the big media players tackle the rise of the cost effective digital media channel.
Kat on Engaging as a Company

It is a tough issue, and I can understand why you've never published. I would encourage you to do so though - you probably have a feeling for when your writing reflects your voice and when it doesn't - and the rewards are worth it.
Thanks for reading Wendy. :)

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The Most Public Index

by Kelly Wheeler

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