Company: TapInfluence, Boulder, CO
Company Description: Founded in 2009 by Rustin Banks and Holly Hamann, TapInfluence is venture- funded and privately held. With over 40 employees and offices in both Boulder, CO and New York, NY, TapInfluence provides the marketing industry’s only cloud-based software that automates the creation, management and measurement of influencer marketing programs from a single platform.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Software - Marketing/Public Relations Solution

Nomination Title: TapInfluence's Cloud-based Influencer Marketing Software

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 525 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date:

TapInfluence provides the industry’s only cloud-based software that automates the creation, management and measurement of influencer marketing programs from a single platform. The software automates the time-consuming and manual process of identifying and engaging with large numbers of social influencers (content creators on blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and other social platforms). 

It includes an integrated management platform that distributes content across all social networks and provides detailed campaign analysis via custom measurement dashboards. With the release of this cloud-based software, the company is executing on its strategy to automate the entire influencer marketing process, extending its influencer community beyond bloggers, and creating an interactive marketplace to facilitate the influencer/brand business relationship.
 
Below are four key processes of an effective influencer marketing program,  which are all only automated through TapInfluence’s new software:
 
1) Identify:
Brands can now connect and interact with millions of consumers through a single platform by tapping into the industry’s largest searchable marketplace of more than 100,000 registered social influencers.  Brands can sort through these influencers based on topic, vertical market  focus, demographic, social influence, and consumer reach in order to engage  those who are aligned with their marketing strategy. Brands can also manage  their own influencers through the platform.
 
2) Activate: 
Brand customers can mobilize influential content publishers to generate authentic, branded content and engage millions of target consumers in social conversations around specific products and services. Marketers can literally manage every step of the campaign from content publication and  influencer management to distribution, reach and consumer engagement. It also allows marketers to invite influencers to participate, communicate with them  about requirements, monitor content, schedule posts and manage payment.
 
3) Manage: 
By using TapInfluence’s unique technology, marketers can view, approve and distribute content all from one location. Instead of looking up hundreds of blogs to ensure that blogger content is brand-safe and on message, brands can view and manage content all from one screen. Additionally, brand customers then own all of the content and only TapInfluence enables the ability to instantly distribute this content to their own branded assets and social channels, thus amplifying consumer engagement across the web.
 
4) Measure: 
TapInfluence’s software tracks and monitors the creation, distribution, reach and engagement of all influencer content, regardless of  social platform. Detailed performance metrics track influencer reach, consumer engagement, how content is shared across influencer channels, and overall effectiveness. Since the content is created in our platform, marketers have the ability to monitor engagement and respond quickly to the conversation.
 
Results:
- Since unveiling the new platform on March 18, 2013 TapInfluence has already signed 20 new enterprise brand clients (five of which are Fortune 100 brands)
- The first customer to use the new solution to fully automate an  influencer marketing program is Reader’s Digest
- The new cloud-based software is expected to increase the company’s total revenue by 200% in 2013 (in other words, tripling the total revenue from  2012)
- TapInfluence is the first to market with a Software-as-a-Service solution
- TapInfluence received $3.2M in Series A funding in March 2012 to help  support the creation of this new software platform as well as scale the  business through the addition of key management personnel.

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Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Raviv Turner, Product Manager at TapInfluence, is passionate about developing web, social, mobile apps and games that engage, retain and monetize users. Turner is the unifying force behind TapInfluence’s product strategy and execution, combining feedback from influencers, Fortune 100 brands, channel partners, developers and the market to set the strategic vision and lead the execution of the industry’s first end-to-end Influencer Marketing solution. He sees Influencer Marketing as the future in the digital advertising world and is excited to be at the forefront of this evolution.

Turner has more than ten years of product management experience prior to joining TapInfluence. He successfully launched Guerillapps, a venture-backed, social gaming startup and also worked for NYKB, Digital Production Solutions - IDT Entertainment Company and ZOE Interactive.

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