POUND – Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion, is BuzzFeed’s own version of SHIELD. If you are a Marvel’s comic fan, you know SHIELD, or Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division, is in charge of monitoring both the good and bad, so our superheroes know the difference.
POUND, like SHIELD, handles espionage, but its job is to stalk your content to see what is performing and what is not getting it done. Once you get the basic project management techniques down, the next step is to identify what assets work best to enhance performance. POUND may be something you want on your side.
What is POUND?
What does Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion mean exactly? Even Tony Stark would struggle with that name. POUND allows you to track one article as it goes across the Internet. Let’s break that down.
You put up a new blog post. Maybe your current page metric system shows three people shared it on Facebook. That is pretty limited information. What happens to it from there? Does anyone else share it? Is it linked to any other blog posts? Did the New York Times reference your little story on their cover page? If they did, you might never know.
With POUND, you still see someone shared your post on Facebook, but it doesn’t stop there. Three of that person’s Facebook friends also shared it and one tweeted it. Four people picked it up off the Twitter and pinned it. You thought your post got just one share, but it’s got legs.
Is All That Really Necessary?
Theoretically, if a post gets that many shares, you would see the afterglow in page traffic numbers, but, again, that is limited information. Did you really get 100,000 hits from one Facebook share? Who was that masked man?
The point is content has what BuzzFeed calls a downstream cascade that you don’t see with traditional analytics. With POUND, you see the action as it happens. It goes beyond social networking, too. For instance, POUND tells you how many mentions you get on blogs and in new sites.
What POUND Will Not Tell You
Like SHIELD, POUND works in the shadows to collect information secretly. When it files a report, you get the numbers, but not the names. If Nick Fury shares your link on Facebook, you won’t know it. Everything is anonymous. POUND allows you to see a more complete version of the big picture, but doesn’t weigh you down with all the little details.
It’s Not Soup Yet
POUND is still in beta stage, but BuzzFeed promises to keep testing and enhancing it until it is ready. If you advertise with BuzzFeed, you can get in on the ground floor, but the rest of us mortals have to wait. Keep your eye on the sky, though, because POUND may be coming to your virtual neighborhood some day soon.
Writer Bio: Darla F is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in helping agencies meet their goals by developing creative and engaging content.
