Being Heardable

Being Heardable http://www.heardable.com/heardable.xml The Heardable Blog en-us Fri, 04 May 2012 19:26:16 GMT Being Heardable: UBM Electronics and Heardable Unveil the Top Design Software Brands http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=365 <div><em>Autodesk Inc. named #1 design software brand with a Heardable Score of 716 out of 1,000, followed by SAP at #2, Solidworks at #3, Microsoft at #4 and Altair at #5</em></div> <div> </div> <div>SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Electronics, the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers, and Heardable, Inc., the world's first and only real-time contextual brand analytics platform, today unveil a new benchmark report entitled, "Top Performing Design Software Brands in the Electronics Industry." </div> <div> </div> <div>Autodesk Inc. outscored 217 other design software companies to be named the most effective design software brand.  Autodesk outpaced brands such as Microsoft and SAP to secure the top position, which was calculated by a thorough examination of over 44 design software brands and 796 data variables per brand.  Autodesk scored 716 out of 1,000 and beat its nearest competitor, SAP, by 13 points (1.82%).</div> <div> </div> <div>So what is Autodesk doing right?  A lot of things.  The company's online engagement strategy is spot on, touching all aspects of its digital footprint – from publishing content in multiple media formats to optimizing its websites for mobile users, to social media participation and SEO. </div> <div> </div> <div>"Successful marketing in today's worldwide marketplace means more than just communicating a superior product or service. The digital footprints of the world's best brands extend far beyond direct communications with their customers," said Kathy Astromoff, CEO, UBM Electronics.  "This report will help design software marketers increase their discoverability among not only electronics engineering buyers but also influencers who shape the community's opinion of their brand."</div> <div> </div> <div>"Autodesk is a design software company that's doing many things right," said Jon Samsel, CEO and Co-Founder of Heardable. "They've employed a customer engagement strategy that's managed to touch all aspects of its digital footprint -- from employee bloggers and mobile optimization to social media adoption and real-time help features -- it's managed to create a holistic online experience that's a reflection of its brand." </div> <div> </div> <div>Top 10 Top Performing Design Software Brands, ranked by Heardable score (1,000 points possible) include:</div> <div> </div> <div>Autodesk – 716</div> <div>SAP -703</div> <div>Solidworks – 687</div> <div>Microsoft – 682</div> <div>Altair – 661</div> <div>Oracle – 654</div> <div>Corel – 654</div> <div>Accenture – 642</div> <div>Dassault Systemes– 622</div> <div>Siemens PLM - 616</div> <div> </div> <div>Details about the full report, "The Top Performing Design Software Brands," including a free PDF excerpt, can be found at:  <a href="http://ubm-heardable.myshopify.com/products/the-top-design-software-brands-in-the-electronics-industry">http://ubm-heardable.myshopify.com/products/the-top-design-software-brands-in-the-electronics-industry</a>.</div> <div> </div> <div>Heardable evaluated 44 design software brands, including: IBM, MathWorks, Synopsys, OMEGA, Cadence, National Instruments, Mentor Graphics, Express Logic, Maplesoft and Optiwave.</div> <div> </div> <div>To learn more about Heardable or other UBM Electronics strategic marketing services, contact Barbara Couchois, Vice President, Operations and Partner Services, UBM Electronics at barbara.couchois@ubm.com or 415.947.6928. </div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable</div> <div>Heardable is the standard for measuring online brand performance. Heardable answers the question, "What would you like to know about your brand today?" Heardable customers leverage contextual analytics and trend data to make smarter, faster business decisions. 15 million brands x 700+ data variables x 1000's of customizable reports. Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. http://heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>About UBM Electronics </div> <div>UBM Electronics is the global leader in media and marketing solutions for the electronics industry, delivering results for the key influencers and decision makers involved in the design, development, and commercialization of technology through its market leading brands, peer communities, and professional education services. More than 2.2 million engineering professionals engage with UBM Electronics brands which include EE Times, EDN, Design News, Test & Measurement World, TechOnline, EBN, DataSheets.com, Designlines, and Embedded.com across the globe to accelerate technology sales. The international electronics community gathers at UBM Electronics market leading events such as the Embedded Systems Conferences, DesignCon,and ARM Technology Conference to share, learn, discuss, and advance the critical issues and challenges facing the electronics industry. Additionally, UBM Electronics provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation marketing, integrated media, custom solutions and research. UBM Electronics is part of UBM (UBM.L) a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.</div> <div> </div> <div>About UBM</div> <div>UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,634 staff in more than 31 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information, go to www.ubm.com; follow us at @UBM_plc to get the latest UBM news.</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on UBM Electronics please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Felicia Hamerman, Vice President, Marketing</div> <div>T: 516.562.5652, E: felicia.hamerman@ubm.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on Heardable please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc.</div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel@heardable.com</div> Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:58:42 GMT Being Heardable: Vanguard Number 1 In New Research Report By Heardable http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=364 <div><em>Vanguard is highest scoring full service investment advice brand online with a brand health score of 644 out of 1,000, followed by Fidelity at #2, Ameriprise at #3, Merrill Lynch at #4, and Prudential at #5.</em></div> <div> </div> <div>Temecula, CA (PRWEB) April 17, 2012 - Heardable, the standard for measuring online brand performance, recognizes Vanguard (<a href="http://vanguard.com">http://vanguard.com</a>) as the most effective full service investment advice brand online. Vanguard's superior performance is highlighted in Heardable's latest benchmark report titled, "The Top 20 Full Service Financial Advisors."</div> <div> </div> <div>Vanguard's brand health score of 644 out of 1,000 possible points beat its nearest competitor, Fidelity, by 10 points, or 1.55%, and surpassed third place Ameriprise by 30 points, or 4.66%. The gap between Vanguard and lowest-ranked UBS Wealth Management was 538 points, or 83.54%.</div> <div> </div> <div>The report had two objectives: 1) to help leaders in the financial services industry understand the value that 'brand data' brings to enterprise decision-making, 2) to help these same leaders understand the levers through which online brand value is created in order to help identify opportunities to grow the value of their brands going forward.</div> <div> </div> <div>Top 10 Full Service Investment Advice Brands (ranked by Heardable Score)</div> <div> </div> <div>1. Vanguard - 644 </div> <div>2. Fidelity - 634 </div> <div>3. Ameriprise - 614 </div> <div>4. Merrill Lynch 565 </div> <div>5. Prudential - 542 </div> <div>6. Baird - 539 </div> <div>7. Legg Mason - 536 </div> <div>8. T. Rowe Price - 520 </div> <div>9. Wells Fargo Advisors    - 479 </div> <div>10. Raymond James - 475</div> <div> </div> <div>Of the four dozen vendors evaluated, including popular brands such as Edward Jones, Genworth and Wells Fargo Advisors, twenty brands qualified for inclusion in Heardable's benchmark report based on 796 criteria corresponding to six major areas of analysis:</div> <div> </div> <div>1. Mobile readiness </div> <div>2. Social media participation & fan base </div> <div>3. Content publishing and syndication </div> <div>4. Visitor measurement & optimization </div> <div>5. Website accessibility & usability </div> <div>6. Search engine optimization</div> <div> </div> <div>So how did Vanguard rise to the position of category leader? Three areas of competence stood out:</div> <div> </div> <div>1) mobile user experience </div> <div>2) social media participation </div> <div>3) search optimization</div> <div> </div> <div>"Vanguard understands that social media is a conversation engine, not an ad network, which allows them to act socially throughout the enterprise rather than simply broadcasting that they are a social brand," said John Sharp, CTO and co-founder of Heardable, Inc. "This subtle difference is what makes Vanguard's online engagement strategy more authentic than many of its competitors who may be popular, but have weaker brand advocacy."</div> <div> </div> <div>Brands Featured in the Report </div> <div>Ameriprise, Axa-Equitable, Baird, Convergent Wealth Advisors, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, Edelman Financial, Edward Jones, Fidelity, Genworth, HighTower Advisors, John Hancock, Legg Mason, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Raymond James, T. Rowe Price, UBS Wealth Management, Vanguard, Wells Fargo Advisors.</div> <div> </div> <div>Details about the report, "The Top 20 Full Service Financial Advisors," including a free PDF excerpt, can be found at:</div> <div> </div> <div><a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-20-full-service-financial-advisors">http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-20-full-service-financial-advisors</a></div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable </div> <div>Heardable is the standard for measuring online brand performance. Heardable answers the question, "What would you like to know about your brand today?" Heardable customers leverage contextual analytics and trend data to make smarter, faster business decisions. 15 million brands x 700+ data variables x 1000's of customizable reports. Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. http://heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information about Heardable, please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc. </div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel(at)heardable(dot)com</div> Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:39:13 GMT Being Heardable: Enzoani #1 Wedding Gown Designer Brand Online http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=363 <div><em>Enzoani is highest scoring wedding gown designer brand online with a score of 669 out of 1,000, followed by JLM Couture  at #2, Pronovias at #3, Mori Lee at #4, and Mon Cheri Bridals at #5.</em></div> <div> </div> <div>Heardable, the standard for measuring online brand performance, recognizes Enzoani (<a href="http://enzoani.com">http://enzoani.com</a>) as the most effective bridal gown designer/manufacturer brand online. Enzoani's superior performance is highlighted in Heardable's latest benchmark report titled, "The Top 20 Leading Wedding Gown Designer Brands Online."</div> <div> </div> <div>Enzoani outscored brands such as Alfred Angelo, Monique Lhuillier and Badgley Mischka to secure the top position, which was calculated by a thorough examination of online shopping sites and 700+ data variables per brand. </div> <div> </div> <div>Enzoani's brand health score of 669 out of 1,000 possible points beat its nearest competitor, JLM Couture, by 130 points, or 19.43%, and surpassed third place Pronovias by 141 points, or 21.08%. The gap between Enzoani and lowest-ranked Casablanca Bridal was 597 points, or 89.24%.</div> <div> </div> <div>Top 10 Wedding Gown Designer Brands Online (rank order)</div> <div> </div> <div>1. Enzoani</div> <div>2. JLM Couture</div> <div>3. Pronovias</div> <div>4. Mori Lee</div> <div>5. Mon Cheri Bridals</div> <div>6. Jovani</div> <div>7. Alfred Angelo</div> <div>8. Justin Alexander</div> <div>9. Vera Wang</div> <div>10. Allure Bridals</div> <div> </div> <div>The results were somewhat surprising because Enzoani is an up-in-coming bridal brand that doesn't yet have the same number of retail outlets or advertising support as some of the more established wedding gown designer brands.</div> <div> </div> <div>What is Enzoani doing right? Several things: </div> <div> </div> <div>1) website usability</div> <div>2) breadth of social media participation</div> <div>3) content syndication</div> <div> </div> <div>Enzoani recently embarked on an ambitious strategy to become a leader in the bridal industry by making their mark in digital media. They completely overhauled their main website, enzoani.com, to improve the online experience. They implemented new features such as live chat to make it easier for both their B2B and B2C customers to interact and transact with them. They were the only bridal brand provided in this report to offer live chat -- a key market differentiator. </div> <div> </div> <div>Enzoani also embedded data feeds from services such as YouTube and Tumblr into their website to add interactive content into their website experience. </div> <div> </div> <div>As far as social media, Enzoani's marketing leaders realized it would be challenging to try and convince a large number of new customers to visit them at enzoani.com so they did the next best thing -- they went to where their customers already were. Enzoani registered on popular social networks for women such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. They hired a social media marketer to help them focus on this emerging channel. And they engaged their audience with authentic, rich, vibrant and authentic dialog while syndicating original content across the web. The results, so far, are impressive.</div> <div> </div> <div>- Branded presence on 11 social networks</div> <div>- 113% growth in Facebook likes (50 new likes per day)</div> <div>- 157% growth in Twitter followers</div> <div>- 92% positive brand sentiment on Twitter</div> <div>- 112% growth in video views on YouTube</div> <div>- 56% increase in their 'sociable subscore' on Heardable</div> <div> </div> <div>"Enzoani is really pushing the envelope to better serve its customers and that effort is now being recognized with their first place finish in our latest report," said John Sharp, co-founder and CTO of Heardable, Inc. "Case in point, Enzoani is the only wedding gown designer to deploy live chat -- an online engagement tool that's been proven to increase sales, satisfaction and brand loyalty. Hats off to Enzoani's marketing team for taking smart risks to gain market share."</div> <div> </div> <div>"We're honored to be recognized for our online marketing efforts," said Justin Nguyen, VP of Marketing for Enzoani. "We're a small player in a highly competitive market so we strive for excellence in everything we do. Our social media, web development and creative teams have done great work -- from publishing Pinterest content to embedding video to improving our website design and usability. It's a thousand little things that make all the difference."</div> <div> </div> <div>Brands featured in the full report include: </div> <div> </div> <div>Alfred Angelo, Allure Bridals, Amsale Aberra, Anne Barge, Badgley Mischka, Carolina Herrera, Casablanca Bridal, Enzoani, JLM Couture, Jovani, Justin Alexander, Maggie Sottero, Mon Cheri Bridals, Monique Lhuillier, Mori Lee, Paloma Blanca, Pronovias, Reem Acra, Rosa Clara, Vera Wang.</div> <div> </div> <div>Details about the report, "<a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-20-leading-wedding-gown-designer-brands">The Top 20 Leading Wedding Gown Designer Brands</a>," including a free PDF excerpt, can be found <a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-20-leading-wedding-gown-designer-brands">here</a>.</div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable </div> <div>Heardable is the standard for measuring online brand performance. Heardable answers the question, "What would you like to know about your brand today?" Heardable customers leverage contextual analytics and trend data to make smarter, faster business decisions. 15 million brands x 700+ data variables x 1000's of customizable reports. Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. http://heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information about Heardable, please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc. </div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel(at)heardable(dot)com</div> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:37:32 GMT Being Heardable: Scottrade Ranked Top Discount Brokerage Brand Online http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=362 <div><em>Scottrade  was named the #1 online brokerage brand online with a Heardable Score of 654 out of 1000, followed by TradeKing  at #2, TD Ameritrade at #3, ShareBuilder at #4, and Zecco at #5.</em></div> <div> </div> <div>Temecula, CA (PRWEB) April 4, 2012 - Heardable, the standard for measuring online brand performance, recognizes Scottrade (<a href="http://about.scottrade.com/news/releases/2012/Scottrade-Earns-Top-Spot-as-Best-Online-Brand.html">http://scottrade.com</a>) as the most effective discount brokerage brand online. Scottrade's superior performance is highlighted in Heardable's latest benchmark report titled, "The Top 10 Leading Discount Brokerage Brands Online.</div> <div> </div> <div>Scottrade outscored brands such as ETRADE, Charles Schwab and Merrill Edge to secure the top position, which was calculated by a thorough examination of online shopping sites and 779+ data variables per brand. Scottrade's brand health score of 654 out of 1,000 possible points beat its nearest competitor, TradeKing, by 10 points, or 1.53%, and surpassed third place TD Ameritrade by 18 points, or 2.75%. The gap between Scottrade and lowest-ranked Firstrade was 137 points, or 20.95%.</div> <div> </div> <div>So what is Scottrade doing right? Lots of things: </div> <div> </div> <div>- Strong social media participation & fan base</div> <div>- Website optimized for mobile smartphone browsing</div> <div>- Compelling content publishing (syndicated and embedded)</div> <div> </div> <div>“Today’s investors and traders need more than they did when Scottrade was founded more than 30 years ago,” said Justin Gioia, Scottrade’s director of branding and marketing communications. “To empower investors on their path to financial success, Scottrade is going beyond our trademark $7 value message that we launched in 1998 to now include communication about our growing number of investment products, tools and support that today’s clients need.”</div> <div> </div> <div>"Scottrade has obviously worked very hard to make its customers feel like they're more than just an account number," said John Sharp, co-founder of Heardable, Inc. "They offer a comprehensive and easy-to-use website, they've refined the user experience for mobile and social media consumption, and they regularly publish and syndicate content across the deep web to expand their brand influence. Hats off to Scottrade management for a job well done."</div> <div>  </div> <div>Top 10 Discount Brokerage Brands, Ranked by Brand Health Score</div> <div> </div> <div>1. Scottrade</div> <div>2. TradeKing</div> <div>3. TD Ameritrade</div> <div>4. ShareBuilder</div> <div>5. Zecco</div> <div>6. ETRADE</div> <div>7. Charles Schwab</div> <div>8. Merrill Edge</div> <div>9. OptionsXpress</div> <div>10. Firstrade</div> <div> </div> <div>Social media, as a practice and an emergent discipline, is effective for what we call “business-to-everything”. This means that the best and most progressive companies of today use social media to literally become social enterprises. On YouTube, for example, Heardable found that ETRADE's channel has the most subscribers (28,351), followed by Zecco (1,247), Scottrade (876), TD Ameritrade (597), and Charles Schwab (548). The top 7 brands in this report have an impressive 3,793,214 combined views on YouTube.</div> <div> </div> <div>Another interesting piece of data gleaned from Heardable's report is the sentiment of conversations on Twitter that included brands from this report. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of these conversations were positive.</div> <div> </div> <div>Details about the report, "The Top 10 Leading Discount Brokerage Brands Online," including a free PDF excerpt, can be found at:</div> <div> </div> <div><a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-10-leading-discount-brokerage-brands-online">http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-10-leading-discount-brokerage-brands-online</a></div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable, Inc.</div> <div>Heardable is the standard for measuring online brand performance. Heardable answers the question, "What would you like to know about your brand today?" Heardable customers leverage contextual analytics and trend data to make smarter, faster business decisions. 15 million brands x 779 data variables x 1000's of customizable reports. Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. http://heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on Heardable, please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc. </div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel(at)heardable(dot)com</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>About Scottrade, Inc.</div> <div>Investors who enjoy online stock trading will find value and personalized customer service at investing services company Scottrade, Inc. Founded in 1980, Scottrade enables clients to learn about online trading tools, stock market research and how to buy stocks online, many at just $7 per trade. With more than 500 nationwide branch offices, Scottrade has the largest branch network among online brokerage firms. To learn more about the FORTUNE® “100 Best Companies to Work For,” visit about.scottrade.com or www.scottrade.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Member FINRA/SIPC. Scottrade Bank, Member FDIC.</div> <div> </div> <div>Scottrade® and the Scottrade® logo are the registered trademarks of Scottrade, Inc.</div> </div> Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:01:04 GMT Being Heardable: PetSmart Rated #1 Online Pet Supply Store http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=361 <p><em>PetSmart was named the #1 online store brand for pet supplies with a brand health score of 725 out of 1000, followed by Petco at #2, PetFoodDirect at #3, Jeffers Pet at #4, and Pet Food Express at #5.</em></p> <div> </div> <div>Temecula, CA (PRWEB) April 4, 2012 - Heardable, the real-time data and publishing platform measuring online brand performance, just released a new benchmark report titled, "The Top 15 Online Store Brands for Pet Supplies," and PetSmart (<a href="http://petsmart.com">http://petsmart.com</a>) outscored 14 competitors to be crowned the most effective pet supply store online. </div> <div> </div> <div>PetSmart outscored brands such as Wag.com, Drs. Foster And Smith, Mr Chewy, and Petflow to secure the top position, which was calculated by a thorough examination of online shopping sites and 779+ data variables per brand. PetSmart's score of 725 out of 1,000 beat its nearest competitor, Petco, by 14 points (1.93%). The gap between PetSmart and lowest-ranked UPCO was 349 points, or 48.14%.</div> <div> </div> <div>So what is PetSmart doing right? Lots of things: </div> <div> </div> <div>- Compelling content publishing (syndicated and embedded)</div> <div>- Strong social media presence, participation & followers</div> <div>- Website highly optimized for search engines (SEO)</div> <div> </div> <div>"PetSmart is doing a great job balancing its business interests with brand outreach," said John Sharp, co-founder of Heardable, Inc. "It's been able to differentiate itself in this highly competitive business sector by offering a wide variety of content and an Internet shopping experience second to none to meet the demands of its fan base. That effort is being rewarded with positive word-of-mouth, customer loyalty, and strong sales." </div> <div>  </div> <div>Top 10 Pet Supply Store Brands, Ranked by Brand Health Score (1000 points possible)</div> <div> </div> <div>1. Petsmart - 725</div> <div>2. Petco - 711</div> <div>3. PetFoodDirect - 614</div> <div>4. Jeffers Pet - 607</div> <div>5. Pet Food Express - 574</div> <div>6. Dog.com - 572</div> <div>7. PetCareRx.com - 572</div> <div>8. Wag.com - 557</div> <div>9. Mr Chewy - 531</div> <div>10. PetSupplies.com - 490</div> <div> </div> <div>Details about the report, "The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital," including a free PDF excerpt, can be found at:</div> <div> </div> <div><a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-15-online-store-brands-for-pet-supplies">http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-15-online-store-brands-for-pet-supplies</a></div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable </div> <div>Heardable is the standard for measuring online brand performance. Heardable answers the question, "What would you like to know about your brand today?" Heardable customers leverage contextual analytics and trend data to make smarter, faster business decisions. 15 million brands x 779 data variables x 1000's of customizable reports. Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. http://heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on Heardable, please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc. </div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel(at)heardable(dot)com</div> Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:14:32 GMT Being Heardable: The Great Conflate: Why VCs Need to Market Themselves Just Like Other Great Brands (Or Better) http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=360 <p><em>by Heardable co-founder, Gunther Sonnenfeld</em></p> <p>Just this past Monday, we released a report on <a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-50-leading-brands-in-venture-capital?qid=93796">The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital</a>. The report was a expansive look at how venture firms and other institutional investors fare in a marketplace dominated by voices that manage big digital footprints, and those who share content -- ideas, opinions, thought leadership -- as a form of business currency. The report basically points out what should be obvious: To be a competitive business today, you need to think, act and express your intentions like any great brand.</p> <p>The impetus for the report was simple; we chose a category that most don't think requires a substantial digital footprint, let alone a marketing presence. We wanted to show the value of having a footprint, and how that footprint could be leveraged to reveal critical insights and competitive intelligence.  </p> <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/benchmark.png"><img alt="" width="500" height="357" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/benchmark.png" /></a></p> <p><strong>Here is an abbreviated ranked list of the Top 20 VC Brands (1000 possible)</strong></p> <p>1. Fred Wilson - 627</p> <p>2. Andreessen Horowitz - 611</p> <p>3. Venrock Associates - 603</p> <p>4. Intel Capital - 602</p> <p>5. Mayfield Fund - 592</p> <p>6. OpenView Venture Partners - 591</p> <p>7. Scottish Equity Partners - 583</p> <p>8. DCM - 573</p> <p>9. Benchmark Capital - 568</p> <p>10. Sequoia Capital - 561</p> <p>11. BFTP - 560<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>3.32%</p> <p>12. Trinity Ventures - 558</p> <p>13. True Ventures - 537</p> <p>14. Greycroft Partners - 536</p> <p>15. Polaris Venture Partners - 534</p> <p>16. Index Ventures  532</p> <p>17. Lightspeed Venture Partners - 528</p> <p>18. Betaworks - 520</p> <p>19. Village Ventures - 518</p> <p>20. JMI Equity - 516</p> <p>Further, we wanted venture firms to understand the importance of investing in companies that could compete in their own categories; in other words, we wanted to give them purview into a tool that could help them manage their own portfolios.</p> <p>The larger takeaway is this: Having competitive intelligence, and building strong content around that intelligence, leads to better business decisions, stronger relationships, and more importantly, more deal flow. </p> <p>Think about it. There are any number of entrepreneurs out there with great ideas, who never get the chance to have those great ideas funded, let alone get in front of the right investors. There are a limited amount of venture firms in the market (we only listed the top 50; there are probably less than 300 in North America, and less than 700 globally), which means that unless you are an entrepreneur connected to the venture "inner circle" (or someone already with a track record), chances are your great idea will never see the light of day. </p> <p>Conversely, if you are a venture partner, an incubator, an accelerator or a director of a company venture arm, you've probably seen just about every hot deal that's been exposed to the inner circle, and chances are you either can't beat out the bandwagon, or quite simply, you might have an appetite for a different idea, but don't know where it is or how to find it.</p> <p>Enter digital and social media. And an opportunity in which sharing content and branding the business play such a vital role.</p> <p>Think about what Fred Wilson does: He listens, he shares, he investigates, he challenges and he leads. He generates a ton of influential content. He speaks about his investments, and discusses important shifts in the marketplace. He even sits down with his competitors to cultivate insights you can't read about in the trades or hear about in the hallways of conferences. And yes, he does this via a plethora of online assets -- including engaging websites, immersive mobile applications, as well as editorials and commentaries that keep social media followers interested and enthused. </p> <p>And by doing so, it's pretty clear that he also finds the best prospects and funds the some of the most popular ventures. Sure, the Fred Wilson PR machine is constantly doing its thing, but it's also pretty indisputable that Mr. Wilson has a stellar portfolio, at least on paper.</p> <p>And there is an even bigger prospect looming here, which is the opportunity to use your digital footprint to build the markets of tomorrow. </p> <p>No, we're not suggesting that everyone up their game to become altruistic (that would be impossible), but we are saying that scarcity economics aren't going to raise the awareness levels around the types of investment we should be making, or how innovation can be enabled at the geolocal level. We all know about the economic realities we face with respect to small business and corporate growth in America and abroad. This is about building and empowering communities of entrepreneurs who can see their ideas to fruition so that we can create real, emerging markets. For the most part, governments and institutional banks unfortunately can no longer do that with us, so the impetus is on us -- the folks in and around the investment communities -- to make it happen. And it starts with each one of us as individual contributors.</p> <p>Still not buying it? Listen to what a few of the other top 10 VC brands are doing:</p> <p>"Intel has long pioneered innovative social engagement programs," says Lee Sessions, Managing Director, Intel Capital Portfolio Business Development and Marketing. "At Intel Capital, we utilize events, marketing, press relations, and social media channels in a coordinated manner to tie our business interests with our outreach. Our goal is to publish quality insights and information in a way that attracts interest from new ventures while providing thought leadership within the broader vc community. We see tremendous opportunity in further optimizing the Intel Capital brand online and are continuously working to engage with entrepreneurs all over the world through various channels."</p> <p>"Strong venture capital brands attract the best entrepreneurs who then build the best companies which creates a virtuous cycle for the venture capital firm and it’s brand," says Sean Marsh, co-founder and general partner of Point Judith Capital. "Today, these defining characteristics are conveyed to the entrepreneurial community through two primary channels: (i) word of mouth reputation in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which a venture firm primarily participates and (ii) globally to any person who has access to the Internet and lands on the firm’s URL. The care and feeding of a firm’s brand on the Internet has never been more important."</p> <p>"We are creating something really unique from any other venture capital firm," says Amanda Maksymiw, OpenView Venture Partner's marketing and content strategist. "Our content marketing strategy has positioned OpenView as a thought leader. It wasn’t one tool, one piece of content, or one event. Collectively, we have been working to share the best new ideas through our corporate blog, content site, e-newsletter, and social media channels, and that has made the impact."</p> <p>You can bet the farm -- and your next series of ventures -- on the idea that doing business in the 21st century means embracing a more open, collaborative and informative approach to networking, and a more proactive approach to building an emergent marketplace that can outlast, among many factors, a slumbering global economy. </p> <p>It begins by creating an active voice, and developing online assets that can amplify all the things you do "in the real world." Funny thing is, the lines between what you do offline and what you do online are becoming more and more indivisible. This is a very good thing. It means that our actions -- business, cultural, philanthropic or otherwise -- can be socialized and spread to the right people, at the right times. It also means that we can educate, inform and support entrepreneur communities in ways we had never thought possible.</p> <p>So, <a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-50-leading-brands-in-venture-capital?qid=93796">read our report</a>. Better yet, use our platform on a daily basis. You can monitor the performance of your own portfolio companies, do comparisons between industries, and you can dive deep into the specifics of how a company's digital and social efforts impact the bottom line.  </p> <p>You might not only learn a thing or two about your category, but it might even spark some ideas for how you can grow your business, or how your business is having an impact on your local community. If nothing else, you'll see why so many companies, young and old, struggle in this volatile economic environment -- given that they often don't have the market context to understand what they're doing wrong, or what they could be doing better.</p> <p><em>Gunther Sonnenfeld is @goonth on Twitter</em></p> Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:29:38 GMT Being Heardable: The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital Revealed http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=359 <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/venture-capital-report-cover.png"><img alt="" width="241" height="300" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/venture-capital-report-cover-241x300.png"></a></p> <div><em>Fred Wilson was named the #1 venture capital brand online with a Heardable Score of 627 out of 1000, followed by Andreessen Horowitz at #2, Venrock Associates at #3, Intel Capital at #4, and Mayfield Fund at #5.</em></div> <div> </div> <div>Temecula, CA (PRWEB) March 19, 2012 - Heardable, the real-time data and publishing platform measuring online brand performance, just released a new benchmark report titled, "The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital," and Fred Wilson (<a href="http://avc.com">http://avc.com</a>) outscored 49 other venture capital firms to be crowned the most effective VC brand online. Fred Wilson outscored such brands as Venrock Associates and Mayfield Fund to secure the top position, which was calculated by a thorough examination of over 200 VC brands and 779+ data variables per brand. Fred Wilson's score of 627 out of 1,000 beat its nearest competitor, Andreessen Horowitz, by 16 points (2.6%).</div> <div> </div> <div>So what is Fred Wilson doing right? Lots of things: </div> <div> </div> <div>- Compelling content publishing (syndicated and embedded)</div> <div>- Website optimized for smartphone browsing</div> <div>- Strong social media presence, participation & followers</div> <div> </div> <div>"Fred Wilson's Heardable score represents his participation as a category leader in the VC community," said Gunther Sonnenfeld, co-founder of Heardable, Inc. "Any company in today's landscape must think and act as a live brand, with its own expressions, actions and scalable value offerings.</div> <div> </div> <div>In the venture space, this is especially important: While there might be plenty of capital to invest, the fact is that deal flow is a challenge, and therefore the best way for entrepreneurs and venture firms or institutional investors to connect is through the sharing of critical information.</div> <div> </div> <div>Fred Wilson understands this better than anyone, and has grown his business through the power of social interactions, as well as through a rich digital footprint -- an optimized web presence, pervasive applications, compelling social media content and unparalleled perspectives on the market that incorporate his own thinking, and that of industry stalwarts, all of which he syndicates with consistency. </div> <div> </div> <div>At the end of the day, Fred conducts a deep and direct dialogue with all the stakeholders in the investment process, including prospects, and this is an example for all great venture firms to follow."</div> <div> </div> <div>As many readers may already know, Fred Wilson is a partner with Union Square Ventures, a VC firm that ranked #25 in this report. Every firm featured in this report is a stand alone venture capital company except for Fred Wilson, who is both a partner in a leading VC firm and the most popular venture capitalist brand in his own right.</div> <div> </div> <div>Heardable wrestled with whether to include Fred Wilson as a separate brand in its report, since all other competitors were traditional venture capital companies. But the research results were clear and compelling. For example, Fred Wilson has 209,876 Twitter followers, which is 380% higher than the next closest VC firm on Twitter. His blog, avc.com, generates 70k visitors per month, which is 2,021% higher than second place Andreessen Horowitz.</div> <div> </div> <div>Top 10 VC Brands, Ranked by Heardable Score (1000 points possible)</div> <div> </div> <div>1. Fred Wilson - 627 </div> <div>2. Andreessen Horowitz - 611 </div> <div>3. Venrock Associates - 603 </div> <div>4. Intel Capital - 602 </div> <div>5. Mayfield Fund - 592 </div> <div>6. OpenView Venture Partners - 591 </div> <div>7. Scottish Equity Partners - 583 </div> <div>8. DCM - 573 </div> <div>9. Benchmark Capital - 568 </div> <div>10. Sequoia Capital - 561</div> <div> </div> <div>Brands 11-50 can be found in the report, "The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital," at:</div> <div> </div> <div><a href="http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-50-leading-brands-in-venture-capital">http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-50-leading-brands-in-venture-capital</a></div> <div> </div> <div>Heardable evaluated over 200 venture capital brands and many well-known VC firms did did not make the cut into the Top 50, including: Google Ventures, Atlas Venture, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Summit Partners, BOLDstart Ventures, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Sigma Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Austin Ventures, and U.S. Venture Partners.</div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable </div> <div>Heardable is a real-time data and publishing platform that helps businesses leverage contextual analytics and trends to make smarter, faster business decisions. 14.9 million brands x 779 data variables x 1000's of customizable reports. Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. http://heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on Heardable, please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc. </div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel(at)heardable(dot)com</div> Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:39:09 GMT Being Heardable: The 20% Rule Governing FourSquare and Flickr http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=358 <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/flickr-foursquare.jpg"><img alt="" width="300" height="146" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/flickr-foursquare-300x146.jpg"></a></p> <p>When it comes to social media, we at Heardable like to advocate what we call the “20% Rule." This rule mandates that companies need to achieve a nice balance in the ways they communicate to their customers. 20% is casual conversation; 20% is product promotion; 20% is used for surveys and feedback; 20% is used for critical PR and the other 20% is used to handle customer services issues. </p> <p>What's so special about FourSquare and Flickr from a business or brand point-of-view?</p> <p>Foursquare check-in activity can give business organizations some of the most critical, real-time insight into who your customers really are, and what they’re doing in physical spaces. This information can be used for any industry - even manufacturing - because it’s an indicator of activity in a particular region. Think of it as real traffic. Granted, many core customer or B2B targets may not use location-based services, but the reality is that your future customers likely do, and you’re better off anticipating their behaviors wherever and however you plan to go to market.</p> <div>Flickr is probably one of the most underrated social networks out there. Some companies use it almost exclusively to feature new products, and to elicit qualitative feedback from their customers. Flickr is more than just photo-sharing: it’s a way of connecting communities through products and cultural artifacts that they really care about. It’s also a great way for customers to see the personality of a brand because the interactions with its rich content are emotional, and the exchanges people have around that content become way more personal.</div> <div> </div> <div>When brands practice the 20% Rule across social media, they win big, because the relationships they develop are empowered, authentic and transparent... And, almost always, they lead to greater sales!</div> Wed, 14 Mar 2012 09:40:27 GMT Being Heardable: Testimonials http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=356 <p><strong> “Heardable makes real-time savvy sense of the social media jungle, and publishes smart and easily digested reports that help marketers make better decisions and get a view of their customers.” </strong></p> <div>   -Kayalucia Lauwerys, Marketing Consultant</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>“We're in a highly competitive yet old school industry of bridal gown manufacturing and retail. We're learning more and more about online marketing every day. We use Heardable because it's a powerful analytics and reporting platform that tells us where to focus our marketing efforts -- and why. Heardable is helping us transform our online business, one improvement at a time. We look forward to continuing a successful business relationship with Heardable.” </strong></div> <div>   -Justin Nguyen, VP Marketing, ENZOANI</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>“My revenues have increased as a direct result of Heardable's products. If you're looking to get a thorough understanding of your online brand presence coupled with specific and actionable techniques to improve your bottom line, get in touch with Jon RIGHT NOW!!!”</strong></div> <div>   -W. Kent Hedges, President Hedges Resources</div> <div><strong><br /> </strong></div> <div><strong>“Heardable, publishes fantastic benchmark reports. Nearly every page gives you small but significant ideas on how to make improvements to your website, to your social media campaigns, to the way you measure and monitor performance, and so much more. These changes alone will probably generate hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in increased revenue and make you a hero within your organization.”</strong></div> <div>   -Rene Fuentes, National Advisor at University of Phoenix</div> <div><strong><br /> </strong></div> <div><strong>“The innovative platform Heardable has created to help companies understand how to efficiently increase their online brand and digital presence is evidenced and enabling companies to increase their revenues across the board. Heardable is setting the standard in the industry and will be the benchmark we use for years to come.”</strong></div> <div>   -Chris Martin, Resource Manager @ Trace3</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>“Heardable is a game-changing company in. My professional advice? Buy one of their brand health reports covering your industry, learn from and copy what top businesses are doing online, and start making more money. It's as simple as that.”</strong></div> <div>   -Jonathon Carter, Vice President of eCommerce Marketing at Bank of America</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>“Heardable has greatly helped our business and our clients. I would highly recommend Jon and Heardable to anyone in the marketing industry!”</strong></div> <div>   -Kurt Nederveld, CEO at Rainstar Marketing</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>“Heardable provided what I considered a unique value proposition with their brand awareness and measurement metrics. We are looking to improve our overall exposure not only on the web but within other social media. Heardable provided me with a professional current overview and report using simple to understand comparisons and graphics. Before Heardable, I had no idea on how to even compare our performance to our peers and competitors - now I do.”</strong></div> <div>   -Mick Austin, Sales Director at Vitronics Soltec</div> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:33:48 GMT John Sharp: Five Year Old Takes on Brand Marks http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=2&blogentry_id=355 <p>My wife sent me this <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/5-year-old-girl-brand-logos_n_1242526.html">link</a> to graphic designer Adam Ladd's five year old talking about brands.  It's pretty sweet - and somewhat revealing about what we know, and how early we know it.  </p> <p>Reminds of that Ted talk - the one where it was determined that 98% of kindergarden-stage kids test at genius level.  There's certainly one at work here!</p> <p>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/5-year-old-girl-brand-logos_n_1242526.html</p> Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:02:32 GMT Being Heardable: 3 Ways Heardable Can Help Creative Agencies and Consultants http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=352 <div>Heardable works with a variety of companies to help them boost their online revenues by utilizing our real-time contextual analytics to provide actionable intelligence. Clients include top advertising agencies, brand managers at Fortune 100 companies, website/mobile site designers, SEO/marketing consultants, and small business owners, to name a few.</div> <div> </div> <div>So, how can Heardable help your agency or consulting practice? Here are 3 possibilities:</div> <div> </div> <div>Drumroll please!</div> <div><strong><br /> </strong></div> <div><strong>1. We Can Help You Close a Sale</strong></div> <div> </div> <div>Heardable allows you to generate an online brand health diagnostics report for any business within minutes, so you can send & discuss the findings with prospective clients. "Client A, you're online brand is weak in the following areas, which are impacting your brand in the following way. Our agency/consultancy can help you achieve x, y and z." You can even co-brand the report with your logo. The file output is a sleek PDF. <a href="http://heardable.com/signup.php">Available to Heardable Pro subscribers ($99/mo)</a>.</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>2. We Can Help You Measure Success</strong></div> <div> </div> <div>You can utilize Heardable to create baseline metrics at the start of a client engagement, and generate daily, weekly or monthly progress reports for your existing clients, helping you prove your company's efforts are having a measurable impact on their online performance over time. <a href="http://heardable.com/signup.php">Available to Heardable Pro subscribers ($99/mo)</a>.</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>3. We Can Help You Generate Revenue</strong></div> <div> </div> <div>With Heardable, your agency/consultancy can assemble rich competitive assessment reports for your clients, or prospective clients, telling them how well they're performing online next to top competitors in their industry or local area. You can create a custom list of brands to measure, add your own insights and analysis to the report, co-brand the report with your logo, and assemble a PDF to send/share with just one click. And yes, you can charge money for these reports! <a href="http://heardable.com/signup.php">Available to Heardable Pro subscribers ($999/mo)</a>.</div> <div> </div> Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:03:08 GMT Being Heardable: Dell's Brand Equity vs HP's Brand Advocacy http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=351 <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-92718-am1.png"><img alt="" width="244" height="227" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-92718-am1.png"></a></p> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">When you examine the 10 brands on this chart, you can see that RIM is the most-liked computer manufacturing brand on Facebook, with 9,449,868 likes. But when you zoom in on Dell with 997,909 likes, you will see that they have 12% fewer daily mentions than Hewlett-Packard (HP), even though HP has close to the same number of likes -- why is that?</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable.com reveals that Dell has strong brand equity but weaker brand advocacy than HP. At least, at this point in time.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">The point of discussing these findings is to show how two or more data points, in context, can reveal something entirely new.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>First Glance</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Dell is the most liked computer maker on Facebook. This is true.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Contextual View</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Dell is the most liked computer maker on Facebook on the surface, but HP has developed a passionate fan base that is talking about and advocating the brand across social media, in huge numbers relative to their fan base, which is a powerful indictor that the brand is resonating with consumers more than Dell right now. </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Is something going on in the marketplace that’s triggering this surge in chatter for HP? </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Did HP launch a new product or advertising campaign? </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Did they receive a recent a celebrity endorsement or launch a new social media marketing campaign? </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">If this growth trajectory continues unabated, how many more months will it take for HP to surpass Dell as the top computer manufacturing brand on Facebook? </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable knows the the answer.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Contextual brand intelligence = actionable insights.</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "> </span></div> <p> </p> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:35:07 GMT Being Heardable: UBM Electronics and Heardable Announce Brand Intelligence Partnership http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=350 <p><strong>UBM Electronics and Heardable Announce Partnership to Offer Online Brand Intelligence Services to the Global Electronics Marketplace</strong></p> <div> </div> <div><em>Services to Provide Actionable Insights to Improve Brand Position in Social Media, Mobile, Search, Websites, Location-Based Networking and More</em></div> <div> </div> <div>SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Electronics, a UBM company and the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers, and Heardable Inc., the world's first and only real-time contextual brand analytics platform, today announced an alliance to provide online brand optimization services to electronics companies to measure their brand performance.  Under the terms of the agreement, UBM Electronics will sell Heardable's offerings.</div> <div> </div> <div>The priority for any brand is to establish and maintain relevancy within a very fragmented landscape across a myriad of channels and platforms that include search, content development, social communication and portability.  Heardable helps organizations deal with information overload by helping them make sense of their online brand footprint in a quick, reliable, and holistic way. By monitoring the levers through which an online brand value is created, the Heardable platform provides companies with the actionable intelligence they need to attain their marketing and sales goals.</div> <div> </div> <div>Heardable offerings include:</div> <div> </div> <div>- Heardable Pro:  a daily brand monitoring and analysis tool</div> <div>- Custom benchmark/market trends reports</div> <div>- Individual brand reports</div> <div>- Workshops</div> <div>- Speaking opportunities</div> <div>- Strategic consulting</div> <div> </div> <div>"As marketers seek to understand their true position in the global electronics marketplace, our alliance with Heardable will allow us to truly help our customers in terms of accessing this real time critical information and to help optimize and improve their online brand presence. Our goal is to help the global electronics community bring new products to market and accelerate technology sales," said Paul Miller, CEO, UBM Electronics.  "Additionally, by adding this tool to our portfolio we continue to act on our business' strategic growth plan of reach, services and commerce by offering research services to customers and, via the UBM DeusM unit, real solutions for customers wanting to invest in building strong digital brands."</div> <div> </div> <div>"Mining and making sense of the data cloud is the next big opportunity for engineers, marketers, and C-level executives," said Jon Samsel, CEO of Heardable. "The Heardable platform indexes colossal amounts of brand data and puts that information into context so that business professionals can make quick, reliable business decisions -- often weeks or months ahead of their competitors -- giving them a huge leg up. The UBM Electronics/Heardable partnership means thousands of electronics companies will now be able to optimize and monetize their online brands in ways that were not previously possible. Hats off to the UBM Electronics management team for recognizing how big data can now be harnessed to provide powerful marketing insights for its customers."</div> <div> </div> <div>Later this month, UBM Electronics and Heardable will release three new benchmark reports, the first in a series of reports covering the electronics industry: IP & E, Design Software and Test.</div> <div> </div> <div>To download a sample Heardable research report, go to: <a href="http://ubmelectronics.com/mediakit/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Heardable.pdf">http://ubmelectronics.com/mediakit/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Heardable.pdf</a></div> <div> </div> <div>To learn more about Heardable or other UBM Electronics strategic marketing services, contact Barbara Couchois, Vice President, Operations and Partner Services, UBM Electronics at barbara.couchois@ubm.com or 415.947.6928.</div> <div> </div> <div>About Heardable</div> <div>Heardable makes brand monitoring easy -- helping business organizations around the world utilize contextual analytics to make smarter, faster business decisions in a way that impacts tomorrow's quarterly results. We are the leading online brand benchmarking and analysis platform that measures the brand health of business organizations across hundreds of business categories. Capturing vast amounts of digital information makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done -- such as spot business trends or unearth lost revenue opportunities. Data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into business planning, even hold vendors accountable. With over 14 million brands profiled, Heardable's big data repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness, and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California. <a href="http://heardable.com">http://heardable.com</a></div> <div> </div> <div>About UBM Electronics </div> <div>UBM Electronics is the global leader in media and marketing solutions for the electronics industry. <a href="http://www.UBM Electronics">UBM Electronics</a> delivers results for the key influencers and decision makers involved in the design, development and commercialization of technology through its market leading brands, peer communities and professional education services. More than 1.7 million engineering professionals engage with UBM Electronics brands which include EE Times, EDN, Design News and Test & Measurement World, TechOnline, Designlines and Embedded.com across the globe to accelerate technology sales. The international electronics community gathers at UBM Electronics market leading events such as the Embedded Systems Conferences, DesignCon and ARM Technology Conference to share, learn, discuss, and advance the critical issues and challenges facing the electronics industry. Additionally, UBM Electronics provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation marketing, integrated media, custom solutions and research. UBM Electronics is part of UBM (UBM.L) a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.</div> <div> </div> <div>About UBM plc</div> <div>UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,000 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.  For more information, go to <a href="http://www.ubm.com">www.ubm.com</a></div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on UBM Electronics please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Felicia Hamerman, Vice President, Marketing</div> <div>T: 516.562.5652, E: felicia.hamerman@ubm.com</div> <div> </div> <div>For more information on Heardable please contact:</div> <div> </div> <div>Jon Samsel, CEO - Heardable, Inc.</div> <div>T: 888-520-0034 office, E: samsel@heardable.com</div> <div> </div> <div>SOURCE UBM Electronics</div> <div> </div> <div>RELATED LINKS</div> <div><a href="http://www.ubmelectronics.com">http://www.ubmelectronics.com</a></div> <div> </div> <div><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubm-electronics-and-heardable-announce-partnership-to-offer-online-brand-intelligence-services-to-the-global-electronics-marketplace-137190733.html">http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubm-electronics-and-heardable-announce-partnership-to-offer-online-brand-intelligence-services-to-the-global-electronics-marketplace-137190733.html</a></div> Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:08:35 GMT John Sharp: Google is Not Evil http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=2&blogentry_id=349 <p>Okay, so you've read the news about the launch of Google's "Search plus your World" mashup - Google's latest adjustment to the way it renders search results.  You've seen the arguments for and against.  I've got a question for you: where did you find these arguments?</p> <p>I found entire breadth of these anti-Google arguments on... Google.  Including some that were absolutely scathing.  </p> <p>A truly evil company would not let you see any of this.  They would just make changes to the way they do things, and block the discussion - end of story.  Which goes to the heart of the argument that some are trying to make - what constitutes evil behavior?</p> <p>Google is not evil.  Evil people don't allow arguments and don't share information.  The fact that Google is allowing all arguments to blosson - including those for and against their plans - allows us and them to collectively discuss and figure out what the world wants.  And it might be that the world actually decides that Google Search Plus Your World is what the people decide they want.  </p> <p>As shown by Facebook several times over now, sometimes the world doesn't know what it wants until six weeks after they start using something they hate.  Then they love it.  </p> <p>Note: Google, I do have an issue with paying you thousands of dollars for search, SEO, link and keyword data that remains incomplete, via your APIs.  That said, I feel a need to thank you as well, because we wouldn't have taken the time to develop our own algorithms in several key areas if your data had been enitrely trustworthy.  So maybe, by withholding data, you actually helped us create some value that wouldn't have otherwise been created.  If so, thank you. </p> <p>Final note: There's a <a href="http://searchengineland.com/2011-year-google-bing-took-away-from-seos-publishers-106311/comment-page-1#comment-21839">great article on the current state of SEO</a> that was just published by Danny Sullivan.  If you're in this business, it is well worth a read.</p> <p> </p> Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:23:53 GMT John Sharp: Loving the Fail Whale http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=2&blogentry_id=348 <p>It's been said that today's glamorous militia leader (think Che Guevara) is tomorrow's head of city planning and infrastructure development (think - your Dad).  The same thing can be said of platform developers, as they exit the protyping stage and prepare the "production-ready" environment.  Today's glamorous designer is tomorrow's anonymous error handling management system engineer.  </p> <p style="text-align: center; "><img width="500" height="375" alt="" src="../../../../../../uploads_user/blogs/failwhale.jpg" /></p> <p>That's right.  Now that we're rapidly entering our commericalization phase (watch for an exciting announcement on this later today), what's also happening is you're seeing the results of a year-long effort that has embraced not only the "big data" arts of data gathering, curation, analysis and presentation, but equally, the under-loved areas of user experience design: load balancing, flood management, query and index optimization, settings management, and error handling. </p> <p>For many businesses, this transition can be extremely painful.  Some developers simply don't want to lay down their arms and remove their beret - they simply weren't made to transition their skills into error handlling and query optimizing.  </p> <p>Wise managers will find a way to buy these engineers a ticket to Bolivia, so they can continue their work as revolutionaries.  Dumb managers will allow them to push off the necessary back-end grunt work and continue the glamorous work of making the front-end ever-more shiny - a move that I know from bitter experience will lead to an extremely well-polished slippery slope down.  </p> <p>[Entrepreneurs, please take note of the above advice:  Sell your vision, then build the city, brick by brick, - sewer system and all.  You will create far more lasting value than simply putting up a pretty facade.]  </p> <p>At Heardable, we took the decision to start focusing on "invisible" stuff like error-handling and optimization about twelve months ago.  Today, we're (quietly) launching a highly modular system that has one of the nicer error handling systems built into it that you're likely to (not) come across.  </p> <p>I say (not) come across, because we're trying to ensure that when a user requests a piece of data that doesn't exist, or needs to be updated, that we do as much of this automatically as possible.  As with most defensive systems, our goal is to not be seen to be doing what we're doing. </p> <p>Has this paid off?  Yes.  Several times in the past week,  we've had too many requests for information.  As a small, fast-growing company, our only solution to this is to expand our capacity, and push our business to the cloud, which we're doing as fast as we can.  But there are going to be times when the perfect storm occurs and a system needs to kick in to take care of the user - i.e. a "fail whale" (in our world, a simple alert page) needs to appear and tell the user what is going on.  </p> <p>Fortunately for us, this is happening less and less because we started in on our planning early, and moved the UX to the forefront of what we focus on daily.  Right now, we probably spend as much time removing and handling conflicts and delays as we do adding capabilities, which feels like the right balance.  </p> <p>I like to think we're winning the battle.  If you fail to see our version of the fail whale appear, you can be confident that we're winning as well.  if you do - our apologies - and please know that we're working hard to make those appearances less and less.</p> <p>Note: For all the "fail whale" talk above, we don't have one.  Our current alert page is just that - a simple orange and gray message that lets you know we're ove the limit.  Could this be improved?  Sure - if you have any great ideas about what Heardable should adopt as its "out of connections" Fail Whale, please email me at sharp@heardable.com.  Hand-drawn cartoons, creatures and animals will certainly be given strong preference for inclusion.  We'll even add a credit if you wish.</p> <p>You need to have been a regular on Twitter two years ago to get this reference - a big white cartoon "fail whale" designed by <span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small; ">Yiying Lu, </span>held up by birds, that used to appear whenever Twitter's servers were overloaded with "Too Many Tweets". The engineers at Twitter did a stunning job of focusing on managing the user experience and adding and improving that infrastructure - and deserve a large amount of the credit for the company's considerable sucess since.  </p> <p>Hopefully, we're headed down that same path.  Stay tuned.</p> Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:36:43 GMT Being Heardable: 9 Business Rules of Thumb To Manage By http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=346 <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rulesheardable.png"><img alt="" width="496" height="342" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rulesheardable.png"></a></p> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">The book, Rules of Thumb, by Tom Parker, is a fascinating read because it's a fine collection of heuristic sayings: a measuring device for common sense principles of life.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">I thought nine rules were especially interesting due to their potential for influencing business decisions. They reminded me of how we make 'back-of-the-envelope calculations' which are better than a guess but less than an accurate than a proven fact.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Here are 9 business rules of thumb to ponder:</span></span></strong></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#9</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Business Decisions - 80% of all bad decisions are snap decisions. Good managers make the best decisions after sleeping on it.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#8</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Organizational Management - A corporation should limit its executive staff to one hundred people or less, even though it may have thousands of employees.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#7</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Advertisements - A good ad should have no more than seven words and two things to look at.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#6</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Time Management - A job with a new client with take 25% longer than the same job with an established client.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#5</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Product Marketing - Any new product should have at least three easily recognizable advantages over the competition.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#4</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Advertising - To attract women, show babies and women. To attract men, show men.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#3</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Public Speaking - You should expect your actual speech to take one-third more time than it took you during practice.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#2</span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> Press - Don't tell a reporter anything you don't want printed. Not that they can't be trusted, but what you tell reporters off the record can lead them to another source who may not be so discreet.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#1 </span></span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Elevator Pitch - The idea for a new venture is likely to be strategically unsound if it can't be put into one coherent sentence.</span></span></div> Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:57:16 GMT John Sharp: Yahoo is Going Down - Can Scott Thompson Save It? http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=2&blogentry_id=345 <p>Watching Yahoo struggle forth is an exercise in frustration - like watching the final scene in Gladiator.  </p> <p>Actually, it's worse - because the wounds have been all self-inflicted. First, the board spurned an offer that would have made shareholders rich, and handed control of the company to an entirely new set of people (obviously, this is needed.)  </p> <p>Then in the immediate aftermath, they decide to double down and make the Yahoo content even less navigable, turn their once-great Yahoo Ecosystem (read: APIs) into a befuddling minefield, and make the user experience for advertisers, would-be social media users, and would-be buying customers ever more horrible.  Then they topped that dubious set of accomplishments by devaluing the value of a Yahoo user id to the point of worthlessness, relaxing their once-heroic mobile efforts, and removing themselves from serious contention in the cloud, in search technology, and in social media.  </p> <p>Now, they have a new CEO.  How long can user forums, email and dusty bookmarks lodged inside ancient PC browsers sustain a business? You're about to find out.  Unless Scott Thompson is super-smart, the answer is: not very long.  Can he fix it?  That all depends - most of the core stuff that could be used to rebuild the business is really, really broken:</p> <p><strong>1. Yahoo user IDs are worthless, and virtually unusable outside Yahoo</strong></p> <p>When was the last time a site let you log in using Yahoo?  When was the last time you needed to?  Yahoo doesn't have a front-and-center strategy that could expand the use of its user identities - I find it consistently easier to log in to Yahoo using Google - than using my Yahoo credentials, and my Yahoo credentials are useless almost anywhere else on the web, either for commerce or access.  Bye, bye social network, content-sharing and commerce partnerships.</p> <p><strong>2. Yahoo's confusing APIs, poor navigation, unreliable results, and "corporate' legal stance make it almost impossible for developers to use them</strong></p> <p>Yahoo's APIs - once the cutting edge of what was available - are becoming harder to use, license and manage every day.  Try finding the billing page within the developer area and you'll instantly know everything you need to about Yahoo's other commercial businesses - and general approach to user interface design.  Try understanding how "non-commercial use" expands their business when everyone is speeding in the opposite direction, and I predict you will, like most of us, just give up and try one of the 4,000 other sources of data.  And what's with the substantial statistical differences between Yahoo Search results, and the results I'm paying you for?  Why don't they match?</p> <p>By the way, if any of you out there are studying user interface design, and what to see an example of what NOT to do, sign up for Yahoo BOSS (the custom Yahoo search API that is one of the few Yahoo APIs we still use.)  I guarantee you will come away from the experience inspired - as in, inspired that there is much still to be done in the world of UX design.  </p> <p><strong>3. Yahoo's own social media presense is zip, zero, nowhere </strong></p> <p>Sure, Yahoo Finance and News still get lots of hits.  But the trend is, more and more, we are getting our news by following the stories that friends recommend on the (non-Yahoo) social networks that are the new web front end.  Yahoo 360 has less users than Anderson Cooper has blood-stained white t-shirts.  At Heardable, we track over a hundred social networks.  With the single exception of Flickr, which remains a great, but internally under-loved service, Yahoo ranks at the very, very bottom.  </p> <p>In fact, when I go take a peek at the new <a href="http://heardable.com/brand_profile.php?qr=87965&report_timeframe=1&report_type=social_network_utilization&bid=11&result_limit=20">Social Network Utilization Map on Heardable</a>, I can't even find (non-Flickr) Yahoo nets unless I first expand my results to show all 100+ social networks - and then finally, there they are, with almost zero presense.   This, on top of a massive email base of tens of millions of users?  Unforgiveable!  What was Carol Bartz doing the whole time she was there?  Did she ever look at the user database, and think "social"?  Obviously not...</p> <p><strong>4. Yahoo Stores need to morph into something more like Facebook Pages, pronto...</strong></p> <p>If you're a business utilizing Yahoo's commerce, you're probably in one of the few areas of Yahoo that actually does what it says on the box.  But how do you make users aware of the fact you exist, outside of Yahoo (and Bing?)  Answer: not very easily.</p> <p><strong>5. Yahoo's advertiser front end sucks - indeed, as evidenced above, Yahoo's front end to virtully every possible customer - sucks</strong></p> <p>Why is Google so great?  Because their user experience is a breeze.  I can add advertising to my brand new site in a few minutes, and everything is really well-integrated, from AdWords, through to Google Analytics, site optimization, you name it.  </p> <p>Okay, I'm going to stop here.  You get the idea.  The problem with Yahoo is it has sat resolutely on its behind and watched the world go by.  I'm sure inside Yahoo there were some really caring people who never, ever got a chance to do what they felt was needed.  But I'm also sure that there are an equal number of dummies that really need to be shown the door.  </p> <p>On that subject - I had a meeting in Yahoo a few years back and sat in a conference room next to the executive offices.  On the massive room-wide white board, someone had laid out Yahoo's corporate strategy.  There were many, many interconnecting boxes, reiterating the need over and over again to create a "larger audience for our content" - but seemed to be missing any of the steps that would enable this to happen, including utilizing the brand, user base, or expanding via social media.  The map told us everything we needed to know about where Yahoo was headed - i.e. into the abyss.</p> <p>Can Yahoo be saved?  Now is the time for Scott Thompson to start walking the halls and talking with everyone to see who gets it.  Time to reach down and find that small band of repressed smart people that still work there.  Time to finally give them their chance to make Yahoo great again.  </p> <p>It can be done, but only with a massive, company-wide effort - starting with the firing of the people responsible for this mess, and the hiring of some brilliant internal or external folks (from Facebook?) with great ideas and strong experience in building and sustaining innovative, web-wide user experiences and brands.  </p> Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:56:36 GMT Being Heardable: 50 Reasons To Love Heardable http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=344 <div style="width:510px"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/heardable/25-reasons-to-love-heardable">25 Reasons To Love Heardable</a></strong> <embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=25reasonspdf-120105131822-phpapp01&stripped_title=25-reasons-to-love-heardable&userName=heardable" width="510" height="426"></embed> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/heardable">Heardable, Inc.</a></div> </div> <div style="width:510px"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/heardable/25-more-reasons-to-love-heardable">25 More Reasons To Love Heardable</a></strong> <embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=25morereasonspdf-120105132751-phpapp01&stripped_title=25-more-reasons-to-love-heardable&userName=heardable" width="510" height="426"></embed> <div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/heardable">Heardable, Inc.</a></div> </div> Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:30:35 GMT Being Heardable: Heardable In The News http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=343 <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">May 3, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Scottrade Earns Top Spot as Best Online Brand - </strong></span><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Scottrade.com</strong></span></div> <div>Scottrade’s mobile and social efforts help to secure title of best discount brokerage brand according to brand performance tracker Heardable, Inc.<span style="font-size: small; "> </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://about.scottrade.com/news/releases/2012/Scottrade-Earns-Top-Spot-as-Best-Online-Brand.html">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">April 24, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>UBM Electronics and Heardable Unveil the Top Performing Design Software Brands in the Electronics Industry - </strong></span><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>PR Newswire</strong></span></div> <div>UBM Electronics, the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers, and Heardable, Inc., the world's first and only real-time contextual brand analytics platform, today unveil a new benchmark report entitled, "Top Performing Design Software Brands in the Electronics Industry."<span style="font-size: small; "> </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubm-electronics-and-heardable-unveil-the-top-performing-design-software-brands-in-the-electronics-industry-148709165.html">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">April 17, 2012</span></div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Vanguard Named An Investment Advice Leader And Ranked Number 1 In New Research Report By Heardable - PR Web</strong></span></div> <div>Heardable recognizes Vanguard as the most effective full service investment advice brand online. Vanguard's superior performance is highlighted in Heardable's latest benchmark report titled, "The Top 20 Full Service Financial Advisors."<span style="font-size: small; "> </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/vanguard-wellsfargo/fidelity-social-facebook/prweb9405679.htm">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">April 13, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>New Heardable Benchmark Report Rates Enzoani #1 Wedding Gown Designer Online - PR Web</strong></span></div> <div>Heardable recognizes Enzoani (http://enzoani.com) as the most effective bridal gown designer/manufacturer brand online. Enzoani's superior performance is highlighted in Heardable's latest benchmark report titled, "The Top 20 Leading Wedding Gown Designer Brands Online."<span style="font-size: small; "> </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/enzoani-wedding-gown/bridal-designers-verawang/prweb9402271.htm">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">April 12, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Investors Should Also Offer Advice and Guidance to Start-Ups - The Business Times</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Speaking to The Business Times, John Sharp, CEO for Content and Systems Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based technology incubator, emphasized that monetary assistance should not be the only consideration when making investments into a start-up business. Among the start-ups that Content and Systems has assisted, is Heardable, a US-based start-up which focuses on aggregating data about brands as well as providing marketing analytics. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/specials/bizit/others/investors-should-also-offer-advice-and-guidance-start-ups">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">April 5, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Heardable Ranks Scottrade as Top Discount Brokerage Brand Online - PR Web</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable recognizes Scottrade as the most effective discount brokerage brand online. Scottrade's superior performance is highlighted in Heardable's latest benchmark report titled, "The Top 10 Leading Discount Brokerage Brands Online." </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/4/prweb9367753.htm">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">April 3, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>PetSmart Rated #1 Pet Supply Store Online by Heardable - PR Web</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable, the standard for measuring online brand performance, just released a new benchmark report titled, "The Top 15 Online Store Brands for Pet Supplies," and PetSmart outscored 14 competitors to be crowned the most effective pet supply store online. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/4/prweb9361539.htm">Read the full story</a>></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">March 20, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Fred Wilson Tops VC Chart - </strong></span><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Porfolio.com</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Fred Wilson does a lot of things right when it comes to branding, so many that he tops a list of venture capital firms put together by Heardable. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><span style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/money-hunt/2012/03/20/fred-wilson-tops-heardable-venture-capital-rank">Read the full story</a></span><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> </div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">March 19, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital Revealed in New Research Report from Heardable, Inc. - SFGate.com</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable, the real-time data and publishing platform measuring online brand performance, just released a new benchmark report titled, "The Top 50 Leading Brands in Venture Capital," and Fred Wilson outscored 49 other venture capital firms to be crowned the most effective VC brand online. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/19/prweb9295837.DTL"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> </div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">January 17, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Mouser Electronics “M” Logo to be Seen from the Sky - Business Wire</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Mouser was recently named one of the Top 10 Electronics Industry Brands by Heardable, Inc., in a report that measures the health of online effectiveness for businesses and brands, analyzed hundreds of categories to determine their rankings. Mouser scored 641 points out of a possible 1,000 points, surpassing many larger companies on the list. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120117006831/en/Mouser-Electronics-“M”-Logo-Sky"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> </div> <div>  </div> <div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">January 12, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>UBM Electronics and Heardable Announce Partnership to Offer Online Brand Intelligence Services to the Global Electronics Marketplace - PR Newswire</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">UBM Electronics, a UBM company and the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers, and Heardable Inc., the world's first and only real-time contextual brand analytics platform, today announced an alliance to provide online brand optimization services to electronics companies to measure their brand performance.  Under the terms of the agreement, UBM Electronics will sell Heardable's offerings. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ubm-electronics-and-heardable-announce-partnership-to-offer-online-brand-intelligence-services-to-the-global-electronics-marketplace-137190733.html"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">January 6, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Element14 Kicks Off the New Year with Key Improvements for e-commerce Customers in Asia Pacific - Business Wire India</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">element14 is ranked number one in the Heardable "Online Brand Benchmark Report: 30 Leading Brands in the Electronics Industry" due to its search engine optimisation, mobile browsing as well as monitoring and optimisation using web analytics software. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.businesswireindia.com/PressRelease.asp?b2mid=29647"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">January 2, 2012</span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Element14 and Newark rank top in Online Brand Health Benchmark Report - </strong></span><span style="font-size: small; "><strong>Business Wire</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Premier Farnell’s collaborative online community for electronics design engineers, has been ranked number one in the Heardable 'Online Brand Benchmark Report: 30 Leading Brands in the Electronics Industry.' </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111102005996/en/element14-Newark-rank-top-Online-Brand-Health"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> </div> </div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">November 23, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable Announces SocialStrawPoll.com: Quickly Compare the Popularity, Buzz and Growth of Political Candidates Across Social Media - Yahoo News</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable, Inc. released a new microsite today called SocialStrawPoll.com (http://SocialStrawPoll.com) that benchmarks the social networking stats of the top Presidential candidates on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Growth, daily mentions and fan base are updated hourly. Now anyone can conduct an instant social straw poll to see who's winning the 2012 race for the white house according to each of the three main social networks. <</span><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/heardable-announces-socialstrawpoll-com-quickly-compare-popularity-buzz-081049070.html"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">November 4, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">New Online Benchmark Report Ranks 30 Leading Brands </span><span style="font-size: small; ">in the Electronics Industry - PR Web</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Today Heardable, Inc. released all new research </span><span style="font-size: small; ">that benchmarks the online performance of 30 leading brands in the </span><span style="font-size: small; ">electronics industry. The 159 page report provides online performance </span><span style="font-size: small; ">diagnostics on everything from mobile readiness to social network </span><span style="font-size: small; ">participation to adeptness at SEO. element14, Newark and Texas </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Instruments lead the pack. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8930172.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">September 17, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable Names Heritage Auctions the #1 Rare </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Coin Dealer Brand Online</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-size: 12px; "><strong><span style="font-size: small; "> - PR Web</span></strong></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas, outscores hundreds of competing </span><span style="font-size: small; ">numismatic dealers by following many online branding best practices to </span><span style="font-size: small; ">win coveted top ranking. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/9/prweb8799046.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">July 27, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Best and Worst NFL Football Teams Online Revealed By </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable's Brand Measurement Platform</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-size: 12px; "><strong><span style="font-size: small; "> - PR Web</span></strong></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">According to contextual brand analytics firm, Heardable, Texas sports </span><span style="font-size: small; ">teams are nothing to shake a stick at. The company has just released </span><span style="font-size: small; ">its ranked list of the most effective NFL football teams online and </span><span style="font-size: small; ">the Houston Texans (http://www.houstontexans.com) outscored 31 of its </span><span style="font-size: small; ">competitors to be crowned the most web-friendly gridiron brand. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8670264.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">July 10, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable Names Top 40 Wedding Dress Makers Online - MarketPressRelease.com</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Pronovias has been named the most effective Wedding Dress Manufacturer </span><span style="font-size: small; ">brand online by Heardable, Inc., a company that helps organizations </span><span style="font-size: small; ">utilize contextual analytics to make smarter, faster business </span><span style="font-size: small; ">decisions. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.marketpressrelease.com/Heardable-Names-Top-40-Wedding-Dress-Makers-Online-1310263079.html "><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">February 18, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">100 Most Popular Brands on YouTube Unveiled - </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Results Shame Traditional Marketers - </span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-size: 12px; "><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">PR Web</span></strong></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Which brand has the most subscribers on YouTube? The results may </span><span style="font-size: small; ">surprise you. According to brand analytics firm, Heardable, Inc. </span><span style="font-size: small; ">(http://heardable.com) HIGAtv was named The Most Popular Brand on </span><span style="font-size: small; ">YouTube with over 3.2 million subscribers to their video channel. The </span><span style="font-size: small; ">brand owner is Ryan Higa, a college student who writes, directs, and </span><span style="font-size: small; ">produces movie spoofs and other clever video originals. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/02/prweb5079714.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">February 3, 2011</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">100 Most Popular Brands on Facebook Revealed - </span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-size: 12px; "><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">PR Web</span></strong></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">According to brand analytics firm, Heardable, </span><span style="font-size: small; ">it pays to be liked! The company has just released its ranked list of </span><span style="font-size: small; ">the most popular brands on Facebook based on the total number of </span><span style="font-size: small; ">"Likes" the brand's Facebook page has received. The results may </span><span style="font-size: small; ">surprise you. Zynga's Texas Hold Em was named The Most Popular Brand </span><span style="font-size: small; ">on Facebook. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/02/prweb5029634.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">November 1, 2010</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable Names Top 10 US Domestic Airline Brands Online - PR-Inside.com</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Delta Air Lines has been named the most effective domestic airline </span><span style="font-size: small; ">brand online by Heardable, Inc., a brand performance rating platform </span><span style="font-size: small; ">whose mission is to organize the world's brands. Delta beat </span><span style="font-size: small; ">competitors such as JetBlue and Southwest to take the top position, </span><span style="font-size: small; ">which was calculated by a thorough examination of hundreds of airline </span><span style="font-size: small; ">brand variables. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.pr-inside.com/heardable-names-top-10-us-domestic-r2217837.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">October 21, 2010</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable.com Sponsors Transmedia Content Series </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Featuring Singer/Actress Joss Stone - PR-Inside.com</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable, Inc. joins GoDaddy and 1800Flowers.com in </span><span style="font-size: small; ">an exciting cross-media sponsorship deal for Lynn Isenberg's The </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Funeral Planner series. In one fell swoop, a trilogy of stories are </span><span style="font-size: small; ">released in multiple mediums (e-book, digital video and social media) </span><span style="font-size: small; ">at the same time -- with corporate sponsors like Heardable </span><span style="font-size: small; ">underwriting a portion of the publishing expenses via product </span><span style="font-size: small; ">placement advertising and ad inserts. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.pr-inside.com/heardable-com-sponsors-transmedia-content-r2197993.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">June 21, 2010</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable Appoints Jon Samsel as Chief Executive Officer - PR Web</span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable, Inc. today announced that Jon </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Samsel has been named Chief Executive Officer of the company, the </span><span style="font-size: small; ">emerging leader in online brand measurement and optimization. Mr. </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Samsel will also join the board of directors. The appointment is </span><span style="font-size: small; ">effective immediately. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/06/prweb4164094.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><br /> </span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">March 10, 2010</span></div> <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable.com, The World's First And Only Online </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Brand Optimization Tool, Announces The Launch Of Its New Beta Website </span></strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-size: 12px; "><strong><span style="font-size: small; ">- PR Web</span></strong></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; ">Measuring your online brand visibility just got easier, thanks to </span><span style="font-size: small; ">Heardable (http://www.heardable.com). In today's competitive </span><span style="font-size: small; ">marketplace, getting found, and being heard, is a marketing </span><span style="font-size: small; ">imperative. A Heardable Score is one way for a business to assess its </span><span style="font-size: small; ">online brand visibility and map out the necessary next steps for </span><span style="font-size: small; ">improvement. The higher the score, the better you're doing. And yes, </span><span style="font-size: small; ">it really is that simple. </span><span style="font-size: small; "><</span><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3700274.htm"><span style="font-size: small; ">Read the full story</span></a><span style="font-size: small; ">></span></div> <p> </p> Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:12:40 GMT John Sharp: Great job, StumbleUpon guys! http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=2&blogentry_id=342 <p>I just checked out the <a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/StumbleUpon">new StumbleUpon site</a>, and I am very pleased to report that the redesign they released today is stunning.  </p> <p>Most importantly, the experience I had just now was technically flawless - no floating whales, no bunnies - in fact, the only time I managed to get the Gnawing Bunny to appear was when I purposely searched for something I knew wouldn't be there - and the site still behaved as it should.  Investors - StumbleUpon's engineers deserve a steak dinner, and a bonus - nice work, guys.</p> <p>The other surprise was the fact that the site still feels like StumbleUpon.  Why should that surprise me?  Because, dear reader, I learned long ago, that with few exceptions, no one wants change more often than brand owners.  </p> <p>Way back in the day, at age 19, I won a radio station competition and ended up working as an advertising copywriter at a major ad agency (George Patterson/Bates in Adelaide, Australia.) Before you can say "where is the next revenue coming from?", I learned very quickly that no one tires of ads, logos, signs, business cards and slogans faster than the client.  </p> <p>It is SO easy to sell a new logo and/or slogan to an ad agency client that there should be a law against it.  Seriously.</p> <p>Want the client to approve a new web site?  Just ask them.  They've viewed their own web site five gazillion times.  And, unlike their customers, who've seen it one millioneth of that amount of times, they are sick to death of it.  Does the client want a redesign?  A new logo?  A new TV ad?  A different jingle?  Just ask!  Ka-ching!</p> <p>This sad knowledge is why it was so gratifying to go onto StumbleUpon's site and see that they have retained their personality, and enough of the look and feel of old for it not to feel like a new place (unlike, say, Digg, or, ahem, Friendster).  This is credit-worthy - that StumbleUpon somehow managed to avoid the temptation to throw away all that is old, and easily-identified by the customer, means they won't find themselves out in the cold, like Digg, who managed to achieve the complete opposite of greater loyalty during their redesign, and alienated technical and non-technical customers alike (the fact Digg apears to have their act together now is too-little, too late, really.)  </p> <p>This all goes to show that StumbleUpon has some smart, long-term thinkers running stratagy.  How's this translating to verifiable success on Heardable?  StumbleUpon is among our top 1% performing brands, and recently cracked <a href="http://heardable.com/brand_profile.php?qr=717&report_type=soc_overview&bid=475&result_limit=10">the Top 10 of all listed Social networks on Heardable</a> (we track over 120 social networks, including all the ones you use, plus some you've never heard of, and we run every site in our database against them every time we do a scan - to see them all, just click the link and increase the results shown.) </p> <p>According to our analysis, StumbleUpon is sitting at #9 with a bullet, with more than 1.2% of all sites we measure linking to them.  That number is surely to rise with StumbleUpon's new, much easier to understand, channel strategy for users and brands.  Watch this space. </p> Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:55:24 GMT John Sharp: What Herman Cain can learn from Coca-Cola http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=2&blogentry_id=341 <p>Yesterday, former GOP front-runner Herman Cain announced he was dropping out of the 2012 race for President.  When interviewed by Reuters, several of his followers told us what most of us already know: it wasn't the affairs that bothered them, it was the denials: the covering up.  </p> <p>Yes, in trying to be the "perfect brand", Cain found out the hard way that people prefer their candidates/brands to be... well, a little more human perhaps.  And honest with the customer.  </p> <p>Nobody has learned that lesson better than another Atlanta-based brand - Coca-Cola.  At the same moment Cain was announcing his retirement from the race, Coca-Cola distributors were busy apologizing to retailers and consumers and re-stocking shelves with Coke's traditional red-colored cans, after a disastrous campaign involving a white-colored can.</p> <p>The decorative can - the centerpiece of a campaign that was designed to ring in the Holidays, confused a lot of folks and annoyed Diet Coke buyers as they grabbed a can that looked like Diet Coke and instead gave themselves the sugar rush/calories they'd been trying to avod.</p> <p>Coke's solution to the problem?  Admit the error.  Wind back the campaign - totally.  As Coca-Cola learned way back during the "new Coke" campaign, you can actually earn a decent amount of fresh new brand equity from admitting your imperfections (and your love and respect of the customer and his views.)  Whereas not admitting you're at fault - and especially not getting to the heart fo thigns - can detract from your brand equity significantly.  </p> <p>Full marks to Coca-Cola this week.  Herman, next time you run, maybe you should drive across town first and sit down and take counsel from the masters of building brand equity on the back of imperfect ideas (there's a reason why Warren Buffett has always loved these guys.)</p> <p>Anyway, back to the national stage.  Do you think Herman Cain could have stayed in the race by admitting his "imperfections"?  could he have weathered the storm?  Of course, we'll never know - and only Herman Cain knows for sure how much of the noise translates into past reality.  But one thing is sure - to a man/woman, Cain's followers are saying loud and clear that they wish he'd just "come clean with the dirty" - so they could then make a call as to which alleged womanizer they want as President, rather than attempt to appear "perfect."</p> <p>Of course a brand needs to provide as great a customer experience as possible.  But absolute perfection, as it turns out, may not be an absolute positive when it comes to brand-building.  </p> <p>Note: We removed Herman Cain from our list of canidates at our SocialStrawPoll.com site this morning.  Which is fine, because it's been looking like Newt vs. Mitt vs. Paul for about two months now, according to the major social networks.</p> Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:25:47 GMT Being Heardable: 15 Neat Upgrades to the Heardable Platform http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=340 <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Fans of Heardable-</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">We've been hard at work improving the look, feel and functinality of the Heardable brand monitoring platform. </span></span></div> <div> </div> <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/screen-shot-2011-11-27-at-42538-pm.png"><img alt="" width="500" height="308" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/screen-shot-2011-11-27-at-42538-pm.png"></a></p> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Here's a list of 15 of the more recent upgrades:</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">1. Location-based brand tracking by latitude & longitude</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">2. More brands added to our database (we now have 14 million+)</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">3. Subscription service: Daily brand monitoring reports via email</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">4. Interactive map interface: See brand relationships/footprints</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">5. Eleven social networks now monitored (Big 3 + Vimeo, Scribd, etc)</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">6. Archival of tweets mentioning a particular brand</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">7. More brands added to our database (we now have 14 million+)</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">8. Expanded geocoding & ranking capabilities for Europe</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">9. Visual site map reports</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">10. New Heardable Pro interface (for subscribers)</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">11. Added French and Spanish to our Visitor Focus calculations</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">12. Added Foursquare checkin data for all locations</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">13. Added support for foreign language Tweets</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">14. Launched multilingual keyword clouds</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">15. Ability to "Google plus" any brand profile on our platform</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Check them out! </span></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">If you'd like a guided tour of our latest platform upgrades, give us a ring at 1-888-520-0034 or email us at marketing@heardable.com.</span></span></div> Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:27:20 GMT Being Heardable: Heardable Launches SocialStrawPoll.com http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=339 <div><strong><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Heardable Launches SocialStrawPoll.com: Quickly Compare the Popularity, Buzz and Growth of Political Candidates Across Social Media</span></span></strong></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><em><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Battle of the Republican candidates for President in 2012 - Gingrich dominates Twitter, Romney owns Facebook, Paul rocks YouTube</span></span></em></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Temecula, CA (PRWEB) November 23, 2011 - Heardable, Inc. released a new microsite today called <a href="http://SocialStrawPoll.com">SocialStrawPoll.com</a> that benchmarks the social networking stats of the top Presidential candidates on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Growth, daily mentions and fan base are updated hourly. Now anyone can conduct an instant social straw poll to see who's winning the 2012 race for the white house according to each of the three main social networks.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/socialstrawpoll1.png"><img alt="" width="500" height="351" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/socialstrawpoll1.png"></a></p> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Previously, if reporters or voters wanted to look up and compare the social media statistics of political candidates they'd have to endure a tedious, time-consuming process of looking up the candidates individually on each social network, then manually cut and paste the stats into a spreadsheet -- and that's assuming they knew all of the social handles used by each candidate. SocialStrawPoll.com simplifies this once cumbersome process -- and it's fun to use.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">SocialStrawPoll.com results are non-binding, but they reflect the trending opinion of voters who follow, discuss and share information about their favorite candidates.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Sample social straw poll results as of 5pm, PST on 11/22/11:</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Twitter </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#1 Newt Gingrich - Followers: 1,353,342, Recent mentions: 9,818 </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#2 Mitt Romney - Followers: 173,644, Recent mentions: 4,516 </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#3 Herman Cain - Followers: 170,358, Mentions: 2,781</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Facebook </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#1 Mitt Romney - Likes: 1,190,581, Growth: 4.03% </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#2 Ron Paul - Likes: 594,767, Growth: 7.34% </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#3 Michele Bachmann - Likes: 459,172, Growth: -0.17%</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">YouTube </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#1 Ron Paul - Views: 291,984, Subscribers: 26,838 </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#2 Newt Gingrich - Views: 169,237, Subscribers: 6,272 </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">#3 Herman Cain - Views: 125,100, Subscribers: 4,424</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">According to Jim Kee who is a co-founder of the political website, <a href="http://ReasonableViews.com">Reasonable Views</a>, "The front runners within each media give you an idea of the different social strategies each team is pursuing, but the laggards tell a different story. Santorum, Bachmann and Huntsman have little traction anywhere. Even Rick Perry has anemic social growth rates and bottom tier numbers. When you consider that he has some of the most compelling videos online, and they are getting very few views, you realize how stagnant his campaign is: dead stop."</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">While it's fun to compare candidates by ranked performance, SocialStrawPoll.com goes one step further by showcasing contextual data. For example, Mitt Romney is the most-liked Republican presidential candidate on Facebook, but has less daily mentions than competitors such as Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. Based on data, Mitt Romney has strong brand equity but weak brand advocacy. It highlights the challenge Romneyâ€™s team faces from fringe candidates with a more passionate audience.</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">"We saw an opportunity to create real innovation in the political space using the Heardable platform," said Jon Samsel, CEO of Heardable, Inc. "Before SocialStrawPoll.com, getting real-time snapshots of the key political races, with eye on social media performance, wasn't easy to pull together. I think we're now at this inflection point where there is a gap in the market -- there is this huge appetite for instant, actionable information and it's turning humdrum industries [like politics] on their heads. No doubt we'll be creating more discovery tools like SocialStrawPoll.com in the future."</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Jim Kee adds, "The polls can tell us today that Romney, Cain and Gingrich are the top three candidates. But those numbers can be fleeting, and events like the trauma that Herman Cain is going through can dramatically alter his standing. But the social media rankings found on SocialStrawPoll.com tell a more fundamental story. Those numbers were not created overnight; they are not fleeting in the same way. The represent distinct strategies and months or years of effort, and they confirm why the top three are the top three today."</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">About Heardable:</span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><br /> </span></span></div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">SocialStrawPoll.com is owned and operated by <a href="http://heardable.com">Heardable, Inc</a>. Heardable makes brand monitoring easy. They are the world's first and only real-time contextual brand analytics platform that measures the brand health of business organizations across hundreds of business categories. Capturing vast amounts of digital information makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done â€” such as spot business trends or unearth lost revenue opportunities. Data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into business planning, or even hold vendors accountable. With over 14 million brands profiled and 680 unique online variables capture per brand at various points in time, Heardable's "big data" repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Temecula, CA.</span></span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">###</span></span></div> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:43:59 GMT Being Heardable: Introducing Visual Site Maps - SEO For CEO's http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=338 <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Fans of Heardable--</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">We've just added a new report view to Heardable -- <strong>visual site maps!</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Visual site maps are a neat way to look at the underlying structure of websites. With one quick glance, you can see how a brand organizes its content, internal links and external links. In other words, visual site maps show you how the search engines 'see' a website. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Visual site maps make it easy to identify advanced, optimized websites from sites that have structural, content or canonical deficiencies. It's like SEO for CEO's!</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Not only are visual site maps informational, they're pretty to look at!</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Here's a practical application of our new visual site map report: When you compare Ron Paul to Jon Huntsman, it's fairly obvious which political campaign has built a more powerful web machine to help power their run for the White House in 2012.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: medium; "><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); "><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Jon Huntsman's Visual Site Map</span></strong></span></span></p> <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/jonhuntsman1.png"><img alt="" width="454" height="453" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/jonhuntsmansm.png" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><em><a href="http://heardable.com/brand_profile.php?qr=8405&report_type=sitemap&bid=1228770&result_limit=10">See the visual site map on Heardable</a></em></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size: medium; "><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); "><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Ron Paul's Visual Site Map</span></strong></span></span> </p> <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ronpaulsitemap1.png"><img alt="" width="454" height="453" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ronpaulsitemapxs1.png" /><br /> </a></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><em><a href="http://heardable.com/brand_profile.php?qr=57153&report_type=sitemap&bid=1228646&result_limit=10">See the visual site map on Heardable</a></em></span></span></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Ron Paul's team has done a suburb job making the views of their candidate as shareable and searchable as possible -- you can see it right there on the map!</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Visual Site Maps -- Hot out of Heardable Labs and straight to you!</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Let us know what you think.</span></span></p> Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:06:21 GMT Being Heardable: What Is So Reasonable About ReasonableViews.com? http://www.heardable.com/blogs.php?user_id=7&blogentry_id=337 <p><a href="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/reasonableviews.png"><img alt="" width="432" height="111" src="http://www.jonsamsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/reasonableviews.png" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Can anyone reading this imagine putting together a winning business proposal based on "My competitors want your company to fail?" Who among us could support a budget request with an argument like, "If you turn this over to those racists in the ____ department, they'll ruin the company!"Â No one can imagine supporting arguments like that in the workplace, but when it comes to discussing politics and economics, that is exactly what most discussions boil down to. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Evan Dodge and Jim Kee wanted more than that. Like most professionals, they want to see evidence before they'll accept an argument. "We want to provide that professional level discussion that we expect at work in the arena of public policy, economics and politics. We think that there's a large middle swath of the country that's not emotionally committed to their party right or wrong. We want to engage them." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">ReasonableViews.com was born. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">"We believe in 'showing your work,' so we bring facts and footnotes to the discussion, say Kee and Dodge. "We believe that by being good students of data and history and by doing some unconventional thinking we can be one step ahead of the mainstream. ReasonableViews is a sports blog that discusses the issues you'll find in The Economist." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">One way Kee and Dodge are blazing a new trail in the blogosphere is by using tools and technology to stay a few steps ahead of the other guys. </span></span><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "><a target="_blank" href="http://SocialStrawPoll.com">SocialStrawPoll.com</a></span></span><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "> is an example of a tool they recently used to proclaim a 3-way race for the Republican Presidential nomination several days before the mainstream media. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">"We recognized the genius of Herman Cain's campaign strategy while everyone else was proclaiming him crazy for not campaigning in Iowa. We debated the fairness of the flat tax 3 weeks ago; the Wall Street Journal editorial page covered it 3 days ago. We drew a connection between Herman Cain's unconventional campaign success and Occupy Wall Street that I haven't seen anyone else mention. We produced original research on the 'lost decade' while everyone else is talking about a double dip. Nailing those insights before other people have them energizes us; it's a blast, and it keeps us going late at night." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">The biggest challenge for Kee and Dodge to date? "There's such a long learning curve creating a website," they confess. "Just when you think you've got Twitter, StumbleUpon, YouTube and Google Analytics figured out, you realize that there are 16 more online tools you need to know, plus some new twists on old things to get up to speed on. It's like walking down a telescoping hallway: the farther you go, the more you realize you have farther to go. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">"But, you hear people say it all the time: it doesn't feel like 'work' when you have a passion for the subject material; well, not as much like work. Debating politics and economics is stuff we like to do." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">The duo at ReasonableViews.com is doing something right. Their online brand health score is already an impressive </span></span><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "><a target="_blank" href="http://heardable.com/reasonableviews.com">608 out of 1,000 according to Heardable.com</a></span></span><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">. Their brand is #15,955 of 14,309,865 brands, putting them in the top 7% of all brands worldwide. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "> <strong>Contact:</strong> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "> reasonableviews@gmail.com</span></span></p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://reasonableviews.com"><span style="font-size: larger; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">reasonableviews.com</span></span></a></p> Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:01:39 GMT