New Company to Predict Social Buzz

In an article for AdAge.com, author Mallory Russell writes of Horizon Media investing $1 million of seed money in a tech company that specializes in predicting social media buzz before it starts. (Adage.com)

The company is called Blab, and their employees are full of experience in agencies and technology.  They track what is going on in the social media in a specific interest group, like many other new social companies.   However, the major difference is this ability they claim to have of predicting what these interest groups are going to talk about.  This data is then provided to marketers to give them a head start.

Blab uses machine learning to focus on conversations on social media in order to target interests rather than demographics.  The idea being that with advance knowledge of what is about to become social media buzz, marketers will have more time to react, allowing them to be ahead in the game, rather than catching up.

Horizon’s Chief Digital Officer, Donnie Williams, stated in an interview with Russell, that Blab would provide “data that allows us to anticipate hot topics upon which we can generate brand momentum through advertising.” 

An interesting point made by Russell: Horizon does not have a history of investing in startup companies like Blab – which has 10 employees in Seattle, and is doing some tests with their current list of 12 clients.  Also, Blab, thus far, has been self-funded.  Randy Browning, Blab’s co-founder and CEO, stated, “We are building an engine vs. a platform….  We wanted to be able to control the development of the engine as much as possible, so we wanted to find the right investors.”

This will be very interesting to watch – to see if this technology of Blab’s is really that good.  Sounds a bit creepy, if you ask me; a computer is going to know what I am going to talk about with my friend before I talk about it.  Hmm.  Creepy indeed!