Experts in the Industry: Mukund Mohan (26 of 45)

You know that I have to REALLY like Mukund Mohan, co-founder of BuzzGain, to do two posts (here's the other) about him in one day. It doesn't hurt that he's been one of the most influential and helpful people in my social media career -- introducing me to people like Shel Israel, Ross Mayfield and Sam Lawrence. What I like most about Mukund is the fact that in spite of having launched four successful startups and knowing a zillion people in the online/social space, he's still one of the most humble guys I know.

With that as our backdrop, let's see how Mukund answered the five questions from the Experts in the Industry series:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.

I am the CEO of BuzzGain, a company that empowers individual and organizations to Do It Yourself PR. I have a passion for taking ideas from the stage of conception to market adoption, which is why this is the perfect role for me.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?

I have been blogging about communities and social networks for over 5 years now, after first learning about LinkedIn, which was my first introduction to social marketing back in 2002.

 

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?

I have invested in BuzzGain myself, so any more money would go into it without doubt. The reason is we are creating a scalable, defined and measurable way to find, learn about and engage with influencers in the media (social and mainstream). This is the one area of growth in the next few years, so I am sure the investment would be returned multiple-fold.

 

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

Gandhi. He's also on my twitter profile image. I admire his ability to persist through obstacles, adopt unconventional means to achieve goals and stay true to his ideals.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?

If my friends hang out there and discuss more than just toothpaste, sure. I am not very particular about the where as much as who. Keeping up with, discussing and collaborating with friends and colleagues is more important than where we do it for me.

 

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.

I have this quote that I read daily. It's by David Packard. “You shouldn't gloat about anything you've done; you ought to keep going and find something better to do.” 

BuzzGain - Why I like it.

In honor of my good friend, Mukund Mohan, whose interview in the Experts in the Industry series is coming up later today, I thought it was about time to do a quick post about BuzzGain, the company he co-founded with PR 2.0 guru, Brian Solis. In full disclosure, I'm on Mukund's advisory board which means that you now know that I can't be completely unbiased in this post. But if you know anything about me, you know that if I'm not passionate about something, I don't write about it.

By way of background, BuzzGain is "an online service for discovering and connecting with the people who will help your business thrive in today’s social economy – where attention is a precious commodity." It also allows companies – big and small – to find "long tail" communities where hidden influencers (or detractors) may live. The tool is able to look across traditional online media, blogs and other social sites like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter.

What inspired me to write this post is that our team at Powered has recently received demos from "listening service" providers like BuzzGain, Radian6 and coming next week, Techrigy. What makes our selection difficult is that I have friends at all three companies and like what I've seen so far of BuzzGain and Radian6. In BuzzGain's case, I'm realizing that while they are in the same category of Radian6 and Techrigy, they really are an animal unto themselves.

Here are three things I like about BuzzGain's offering that help differentiate it from other listening or "do-it-yourself" PR services:

• Ability to get detailed information on blogs including their reach, search engine rankings, readership trends, post frequency, contact information and related/ relevant blogs
  
• Provision of contact information on main stream media reporters with their email, beat information related to my campaign and their areas of coverage 
  
• Sentiment analysis and tonality including positive, negative posts, news mentions and comments in a single place
  

I also like that Mukund and Brian are open about not only their shortcomings but are also transparent about their pricing. According to Mukund, pricing is $99 per month for companies under $100m in revenue, $100m - $1 billion is $500 per month, those with over $1b is sales is $1,000 per month.

Brian and Mukund have also responded quickly to initial feedback. See a step by step walk through of their new "user feedback" driven features.

Have you tried out BuzzGain yet? If so, how do you like it?