by Mattr | Mar 30, 2015 | news
(originally published in Entrepreneur.com) Jack Trout, an old mentor of mine, used to say that branding is “what other people say about you.” For most companies, though, the message that defines the brand comes from the elevator pitch — a carefully crafted and succinct value proposition. The only problem is that when your company needs to pivot, the ideas your brand was built upon may no longer transmit the right message. So, what can your startup rely upon if not an elevator pitch? The answer is a carefully chosen core value. In his theory of basic human values, social psychologist Shalom Schwartz identified 10 basic personal values that are recognized across cultures. These values are spread across four dimensions — conservation, self-enhancement, openness to change and self-transcendence — and organized into a circular arrangement like a pie. Each value represents a slice. Schwartz explains that the closer any two values are, the more similar their motivations. For instance, power and achievement in the self-enhancement dimension are motivated by the desire for social superiority and esteem. The opposite is also true. Value dimensions on opposite sides of the circle — self-transcendence and self-enhancement, for instance — come from the opposing motivations of devotion to others and social superiority, respectively. By using this universal model to inform and guide your startup’s central messaging, you can develop a strong brand and appeal to your audience’s most deeply held values, to inspire loyalty. Make decisions based on value alignment. If you’re starting a small B2B company, for instance, you’ll need to rely on service and relationships to differentiate your brand. You’ll need to...
by Mattr | Mar 26, 2015 | news
Once or twice a month, our busy, brainy developers release a batch of really important platform updates that have recently been suggested by users. Here’s the latest: Audience Analysis Discovering influencers for your brand is fine but you really want to know about the audience they have influence over, right? After all, they’re your real consumers. So we created an audience analysis for both the individual influencer and a group of influencers in a report. Take a look: Instant Reports For any analysis that lists influencers (like ‘Audience’ or ‘Who Influences Them’) you’re now just two clicks away from a new, fully-functional report. Want to know when your influencer’s audience is online? Or how socially traditional they are? Create the report and find out! Collaboration Influencer marketing is a team sport. So we have a group communications page where you can keep track of who has communicated with whom. You can even go to an individual influencer’s communications page, see who’s been communicating with them from your company, and add notes in a timeline. See how to do it here: We continue to thank you for your interest in Mattr and keep those feature requests...
by Mattr | Mar 13, 2015 | news
Whether you’re attending a conference in person or following along digitally at home, it can be difficult to keep tabs on what’s happening. There’s so much going on that it can be overwhelming to keep up with all of it. Social media, especially Twitter, has made it a bit easier. A Twitter stream can now keep you in the loop and bring you information from real attendees, there’s no longer a reliance on only journalists. Still, even that can sometimes be daunting. So many conference attendees tweet their every move with the #conferencehashtag that Twitter can become diluted. How do you know who’s relevant? Or credible? Or even simply interesting? If you’ve seen our posts over the past couple weeks, you know that we’ve been working to solve this problem for South by Southwest Interactive, and we have to say, it’s been a really fun project. We analyzed tons of marketing influencers and finally have our list. The people below are the influential SxSW attendees that we will be following throughout the show. Keep in mind, we don’t define influence as those people with the most followers. That’s part of it, but we go deeper than that, looking for the real people who are truly influential, not simply celebrities with large followings. We chose these people based on their industry expertise and knowledge (in marketing, advertising, PR and social media), quality of content (tweets, blogs, books, etc.) and social following and interaction. So without further ado, here’s our list of who we’ll be following during SxSWi. Feel free to use our list and join us in following these influencers....
by Mattr | Mar 10, 2015 | news
South by Southwest is practically here and the streets of downtown Austin will be crawling with techies, marketers and more beginning this Thursday! Over the past two weeks we’ve published a couple of posts to help prepare you for SxSWi: Ten Sources to Inspire the SxSWi Marketer Four SxSW Events Made for Marketers Hopefully you were able to use some of that info to begin preparing and settling on your schedule while in Austin. Perhaps the most difficult part of scheduling a SxSW trip is deciding on your day schedule, though. There are so many panels, sessions and speakers – how do you choose where to spend your time? We’re here to help you with that decision. While we’ve been sorting through online marketing influencers who are attending the conference, we’ve also come across several interesting marketing panels and sessions. We assessed each of them closely and kept track of the ones we felt would be the most valuable for marketers like you to attend. They may not all be relevant to all marketers, and some overlap so still force you to make a tough choice – but we encourage you to give all of these sessions a consideration! Monday, March 16 Quantified Selfie: Our Digital Well Being Meet Up 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM There are a ton of wearable technologies and apps available to track your personal well being. Everything ranging from nutrition to exercise to sleeping habits to even your mood can now be monitored and shared. Which of those technologies and apps really work though? This session, hosted by PwC’s Kat Mandelstein, will discover which digital...
by Mattr | Mar 9, 2015 | news
Today Mattr announced that it has been named one of Built in Austin’s Top 50 Startups to Watch in 2015. Mattr joins forward-thinking startups such as Apptive, Balcony, Cratejoy, Everfest, Paybook, Spanning, and TrendKite on this year’s list. As marketers continue craving more qualitative analytical information on their customers, the popularity of Social Segmentation technologies is rapidly increasing. With so few companies currently providing marketers with deep data on both their audience and their influencers, those possessing that ability, such as Mattr, are increasingly seen as valuable. “Mattr was built to solve a key challenge facing marketers by focusing on a unique algorithmic mix of personality data and demographics,” said Jack Holt, CEO of Mattr. “We are thrilled to be recognized on this list of 2015 top startups, especially since Austin is so deeply committed to fostering the next-generation of entrepreneurs and innovative technologies.” Mattr launched in January 2011 and is one of the first platforms that focuses on qualitative data through social segmentation. Rather than focusing only on followers, Mattr provides rich context around an influencer, their audience, and their psychographic profile by uncovering personality traits, interests and values. The self-funded company captured significant clients early on to retain a recurring revenue stream while expanding its technology to help grow its client base, making it an appealing choice as a startup to watch in 2015. Built In Austin is a comprehensive network for the digital technology industry in Austin. The site connects talent to startups, covers local tech news, aggregates and publishes data on the sector. The “50 Austin Startups to Watch in 2015” article is available...
