Using PeerIndex to increase your online influence

circle of owls 
Circle of Owls - Heidi M Mcdonald via the CraftBlogUK Flickr group 

Written by Amy Gardener of PeerIndex

Your blog stats page will tell you what entries are the most popular and your comments page shows which posts get the best responses - but how do you know if the way you behave online generally is effective?

Blog visits and followers don’t automatically translate into influence: we all know from the playground that popularity doesn’t necessarily equal trust.



When you register at PeerIndex, we pull all your online activity together in one place and analyse it. Your PeerIndex score takes into account profiles you connect such as your blog, twitter, LinkedIn and facebook profiles and shows how effectively you are using these to grow your online influence.

Your score is based on three areas: Activity, Authority and Audience (If you enter your twitter handle into PeerIndex without registering, you’ll still see some details but these are an approximation. Registering means your score will be more accurate.)


AME  arts, media and entertainment
TEC  technology and internet
SCI  science and environment
MED  health and medical
LIF  leisure and lifestyle
SPO  sports
POL  news, politics and society
BIZ  finance, business and economics






A good place to start assessing your online performance is your topics fingerprint. The shape of your graph indicates how you present yourself online. Are you clearly focused on one area of expertise, such as the arts, or do you like to comment on anything and everything? Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being a polymath, but if you want to build an online brand that draws people to your craft blog, it makes sense to talk about related things online.

Online influence is measured so that people can know who to trust. Keep an eye on your PeerIndex stats, especially how many people retweet you. It means they think your comments are worth sharing. See what types of links, twitpics and information get the best responses – and do more of the same.

Audience size does not necessarily equal influence. You can have lots of followers but not engage with them regularly, or have a small but active audience. Bloggers need to strike a balance between the two. If you want to bring more traffic to your site, you might want to increase your audience size. The trick is making sure you continue to engage and share as you grow.

Finally, creating a PeerIndex group can increase your online visibility. The Craft Blog UK group is a great resource for people looking for craft blogs.  By making your own group you can define your own community. It could be a niche, such as craft bloggers focused on jewellery, or wider. Do you like using recycled/found/eco materials, for example? – what other craft, design, and fashion bloggers share the same interest? Creating a popular group can increase traffic to your blog or site and attract more twitter followers. It’s a good way to track how friends and competitors are doing as well.  But, competition aside, it’s also a great way to meet new people in your community and strike up collaborations.


     


UK Handmade UK Craft Bloggers Craft Link HQ and Folksy All the groups I've created on PeerIndex based on my existing Twitter Lists lots of great crafty folks to follow! Please comment if you have any questions for Amy about PeerIndex and how you think it could help you with your blog and craft business promotion.