ThisNext now gauges shopper influence

ThisNext now measures the "shopping influence" of each user on its site based upon content contributed, how other users act on it, and to what degree your contributions matter relative to others.

The company is providing Gordon Gould's profile, ThisNext co-founder and CEO, as an example of how this actually works.  Check it out here.

Think of it as physically characterizing the "mavens" of shopping (to borrow a term from Malcolm Gladwell -- for you non-Tipping Point fans out there, mavens are "are knowledgeable people. While most consumers wouldn't know if a product were priced above the market rate by, say, ten per cent, mavens would."

As a result, it's extremely easy to identify the most influential users in the ThisNext world, especially within reach relevant, respective community.  For example, Gordon appears as #1 in the "healthy" subcommunity, while "abh75" shows up at #3 in "gift guide."  Also note geographical popularity -- it's easy to find out which parts of the world like your style. 

So what's the point?  This is the first material effort I've seen to go a step beyond basic statistics and quantify hubs of influence in shopping circles.  I think it's a valuable exercise and one that could empower marketing efforts in some pretty exciting ways.

Time for your $.02: an evolution in how we understand shopping habits and influence, or just a clever PR move?

At least if it's the latter, it worked on me...

Written by Scott Hurff -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor