Nexus! Influence Imagined

If you're like me you've had Facebook app fatigue long before Scrabulous. But in my recent hunt for nifty third-party apps (not necessarily for Facebook...check out www.summize.com, a much better way to Twitter search than via Tweetscan.com) I stumbled upon (no pun intended) Nexus. Nexus is a "friend grapher" app which visualizes your personal network. Ok, so it may be only mildly interesting and just more social media navel gazing-- unless of course you use Nexus for that branded Business Page your client has that you wish you had more data on.

Well, by analyzing (note: this is strictly a visualization and it doesn't provide any actual metrics) your Fan base through Nexus, Influencer Nodes can begin to be identified. These Influencer Nodes would we be those Fans who have a high degree of connectivity (friends) and reach (networks). You can also see the relational influence of Fans, and even who is "most like you" based on profile keyword analysis.

For those working in a space (social media) where CPM, click-through rates, and other traditional digital metrics fail to provide a total picture of consumer interaction, involvement, and intimacy--you know that constantly seeking out new data and new ways of looking at that data are critical to understanding and quantifying the qualitative.

And, if nothing else, its a nifty enough tool to occupy my cognitive surplus for a few hours analyzing my personal network of influence--or lack there of :)

(note: if this post seems less "Socialized" than normal its because I originally wrote it for the iCrossing blog and needed to temper the vitriol)