ThisNext Measures Influence Over Shoppers

Member Dashboard & Mavens: Promoting Powerful Product Recommendations

Oct 24, 2007—Los Angeles—Does what you say influence what other people buy? ThisNext's new Member Dashboard gives content contributors insight into the influence they command over other consumers within the online shopping community by providing real time feedback and rankings on their product recommendations. These site-wide statistics, which are organized by city, product category and overall contribution, are exposed to more than 1 million consumers each month. Members of ThisNext are awarded social status for their contribution: The most prolific and consistent contributors are dubbed Mavens, and these individuals receive special benefits and privileges.

“We built the Member Dashboard as a way of highlighting the weight our members' recommendations carry,” says Gordon Gould, ThisNext CEO and cofounder. “Our members are like an army of mini-Oprahs. They influence what people shop for in real life and have developed proven areas of authority that sway what online shoppers purchase. ThisNext is the online version of the age-old behavior of asking one another, ‘What do you use?’”

The Member Dashboard ranks and authenticates individual content contribution. This overall ranking and reporting of personal influence on ThisNext offers insight into consumer trends. With the Member Dashboard, members and site visitors can:

• Monitor which products are gaining or losing popularity with shoppers.
• See what products are popular in which cities.
• Build a network of friends and communicate with other members.

Member Dashboard metrics drive the selection of ThisNext Maven. These leading members have made high-quality recommendations, actively participate in the community and influence both ThisNext and the social Web at large.

“ThisNext has gone from being a fun way to share my likes to a very valuable resource for gauging my influence on other shoppers,” says Laura Sweet, one of ThisNext's first Mavens whose product blog is IfItsHipItsHere. “My recommendations have been wished for over 3,000 times, gotten over 100,000 clicks to retailers and are popular in big cities. Given that I plan to open an online store, this type of information is valuable research for me.”