I covered Backtype a few months ago as another place to aggregate comments and such as well as keep tabs on what’s happening with your brand and the conversations that are swirling around the blogosphere.
Backtype was a good service then, and now it’s even better with a WordPress integration that takes it up another level. The only downside I see to the service is that it’s not completely compatible with standalone comment-replacement apps like IntenseDebate, Disqus, etc.
But, I tried the service a few nights ago (had to turn off IntenseDebate) and it worked like a charm, instantly showing me the number of times someone Tweeted a post and any additional social networking features that may have noticed the post:
The reason I think this technology needs to be noticed is that businesses and app-services are beginning to understand that in a truly social web things are happening that are far outside the boundaries and controls of the original content developer and aggregation (besides research and brand management) is a must in today’s economy.
The Church needs to also take notice because it’s simply valuable for a ministry and/or organization to do the same:
- You need to know where the conversations are happening, how often they are happening, and perhaps “why” they are happening in terms of the “where” and the “how.” If you want to better engage and connect with others it’s to your advantage to know where you should meet them in the digital space.
- Provide value. By providing updated metrics on where the conversations are happening you can do this in tandem by providing value to the community to let them know where the conversations are happening. I think this is perhaps the most important part of a decentralized movement: It’s admitting that the best conversations about you are not necessarily happening on your properties and you’re willingness to open those channels more explicitly will help everyone involved long term.
And that’s what I think Backtype is stumbling upon and it helps a lot that their installation process of their WordPress plugin is super easy.
Good job guys, keep it up. If you want some other reviews, see ReadWriteWeb‘s review and TechCrunch‘s.
human3rror says
chris, i saw that! thanks for posting. i think techcrunch ran an article on it. have you used it extensively?
chrisdat says
I’m using it a lot. In the Christian blogosphere so many posts are talked about in tweets or other blogs that it’s an easy way to see who is saying what. Bloggers comment on other blogs and then cross-post with fuller answers on their blogs. It is a “tangled web they weave”. ConvoTrack helps sort it all out.
human3rror says
Cool! I'll check it out further. Thanks for the tip chris!
Jim says
so true, i've started tracking searches for the ministry and i've been able to use stuff i learned here and i can go to the archives. did i mention that i'm a huge church crunch fan? i tell everyone one i know. my thinks we work in the same basement