Finding Influencers In The Media With mPACT

After recently reviewing SocMetrics, a web service focused on identifying social media influencers in topical niches, I had the opportunity to speak with Gary Lee, CEO of mBLAST, about their mPACT service which addresses similar concerns but with a stronger focus on media voices.

The most obvious difference was that a search for music on SocMetrics returns celebrities as top influencers while mPACT returns top writers, based on news articles, blogs and twitter posts, as top influencers. Since Eminem is a bit out of reach for anyone not associated with a major brand, mPACT is probably more to the point for pitching stories and finding writers receptive to one's music, though SocMetrics does allow one to drill down deeper into their database.

mPACT comes in both a free and premium version and, like a variety of products now available, seeks to cut through the noise of the web to identify who's saying what about topics that matter to you. Part of what distinguishes mPACT is their database which is essentially a search engine with a contextual aspect that goes beyond identifying keywords in articles to focus on the actual content.

Choice of keywords is quite important in working with mPACT, especially when using the free version which returns only the top 10 voices related to your search. So "music" returns a somewhat frustrating peek at the tip of the iceberg whereas "sissy bounce" gets one closer to a useful sample. An advanced search feature adds a couple of options for fine tuning.

Results include the writer, publications written for and a few recent titles. Writer profiles provide more including contact information. An interesting feature is a list of the writer's most common keywords arranged in a list and a word cloud. The word cloud is a particularly nice way to get a quick sense of what the writer typically focuses on since pitching a music story or sharing your latest release should be approached rather differently for someone who normally writes about music versus someone who specializes in social analysis.

mPACT Pro adds additional features including an influencer map which is another nice visualization tool for understanding writers' influence and focus on particular topics.

A related product which I did not discuss with Mr. Lee is mBLAST's MediaSync, a free media relationship management tool, which is definitely worth a look as well.

Pricing for mPACT Pro begins at $495 annually and a free trial is available.

Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. Flux Research is his business writing hub and All World Dance: World Dance News is his primary web project.