When PeerIndex debuted on July 28, 2010, Fast Company magazine’s Addy Dugdale dubbed it “the 140-character version of the Google vanity search.” But, the idea of the website, www.peerindex.com, is to answer a question for business leaders and marketing professionals big on social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. Sure, some companies may tweet, but is anyone listening?
PeerIndex’s algorithm uses figures — the number of followers, amount of activity, and a frequency from followers to repost or re-tweet messages — to determine a company’s promotional prowess. PeerIndex then assigns a number between one and 100. The higher the number, the more influence a company has.
Evansville Living, Tucker Publishing Group’s flagship magazine, joined PeerIndex on July 30, 2010, and we gave ourselves six months to flex our marketing moxie. By the end of the experiment, our PeerIndex hit 20, which might seem low. But PeerIndex is a global tool, so while the number may reflect the little influence we have — for example — in China or on Lady Gaga fans, there’s more to the ranking. According to PeerIndex, our top topics (Evansville, Vanderburgh County, and hospitality) show we’re a source heavily influencing all things Hoosier.
Though Evansville Living joined PeerIndex so the website could more accurately gauge our social media use, any business posting status updates or tweeting has a PeerIndex number — whether they know it or not.
But the less-than-a-year-old PeerIndex might make more of an impact in the future, especially if the website’s problems (such as the algorithm’s propensity for businesses and tech topics) are fixed. As Dugdale predicts, “Once fully tweaked and glitches ironed out, you can see this becoming an obsession for the mouthy brigade of the online community, probably forcing them to up their game — and their tweet rate.”
