Likester Pro is Live: What do your customers Like (besides you)?

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We’re seeing something that truly is an unprecedented global, social development. And it is, frankly, boggling our brains.

And it’s all because of that crazy little Facebook Like button.

Like data is a new type of market research data, and Likester Pro gives you the keys to the kingdom.

Have a look at this screenshot of Likester Pro, available for millions of Facebook Pages. What do people who like the Mashable Facebook Page also like? Each one of the circles in this heatmap tells you, and the size and color are fully representative of the relationship between the two Facebook Pages. It’s amazing stuff, and you can play with it right now for free.

You can filter this data by category, making it even more useful. Below we’ve chosen to look at, people who Like Mashable, what types of other Media/News/Publishing Pages do they like? There are over 150 types of Facebook Pages, from bands to actors to companies and everything in between. Likester Pro gives you unlimited access to all this information for $150/month, and a trial is free to start.

Among other features, you can also track the fan growth of millions of Facebook Pages, every day, over the past two years. This historical data is included at no additional charge. Here’s how the Mashable Facebook Page has been growing over the past few months:

When I started Likester almost three years ago, it was clear to me that Facebook Like data was very special somehow and was an important new thing in this old world of ours. And Now, three full “start up years” later:

  1. we have collected a billion or so likes in our own Affinities Database;
  2. we have invented some awesome math and algorithmic tricks to graphically describe and navigate the complex data relationships;
  3. we have developed a very cool graphical Like Explorer;
  4. we have created what is (maybe) the best Facebook Ad management system to put the whole thing to work for generating a little coin to clink in one’s pockets.

If you’re running a business, are in advertising, planning, or social media marketing, or if you simply want to take part in what amounts to an emerging global consciousness, new awareness of what we like and who we are, you will absolutely want to check this out.

I am guessing that maybe you -like me- may want to be that person who actually understands what your customers actually like (besides you). And not just customers, but any group of interest in the world.  Who they really are, psychologically and demographically.  Developing your expertise and occupying this niche will be a lot of fun, profitable and a huge life-advantage.  So: If you want to create and master the new art and science of local/global exploration of the mass psyche please join us.

It’s all new, it’s huge and it’s just now getting ripe enough to have a few bites. But make no mistake: this discipline is going to be a standard part of business operations within just a few years.  See, “like” data is far more powerful than traditional research or focus groups, because, if you use our new tool, Likester Pro, you are observing actual behaviors, as opposed to imperfect listening to unreliable words.

Likester Pro is now live (yay, team). It’s reasonably priced, and you can get a free trial.  You can browse all our exclusive data for free! That’s a big deal, in our humble estimation.  You can select any one of the 40 million Facebook Pages and understand at a glance – immediately – the rich and beautiful demographics behind the page’s fans, as well as the top 1000 things that those fans also Like. Then you drill down on those and explore the global mind.

Likester Pro is also a fully featured Facebook Ads Publishing and Management solution.  So with all of your new-found like-enlightenment about the lives and times of your customers, you can immediately find and acquire new customers through the unifying Likester Pro interface.

We’ve put together a nice set a web videos that walk you through Likester Pro, I’d encourage you to give them a quick watch here.

Learn more about your customers today by starting your free trial, or take the full product tour.
Okay, if enough of you like this note, I will do them as I learn or make things of interest.
Thank You!

Sincerely,
Kevin McCarthy
Founder, Likester

Linkster News Aggregator: Nearly a BILLION Likes Can’t be Wrong

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Likester is the pioneer of tapping the power of Facebook likes. We predicted the winner of American Idol and provided such accurate political tracking of the GOP nomination that we rivaled all the pollsters. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we are certainly blessed.

Likester began in the fall of 2010 as a simple idea, to help Facebook users see what their friends are liking. We launched in May of 2011 to such critical acclaim that the flood of new users nearly took our site down for a solid week! Today Likester tracks nearly 10 million people and a billion likes. This data now powers multiple interconnected products beyond our original site, including Likester Affinities, Adcenter, and now Linkster.

A Billion Likes

As we neared a billion likes we started to see a vast untapped arena: the user’s own stream. This is where they and their friends share interesting articles, and websites and videos. We launched Linkster shortly thereafter, and as it turns out, the result was much more fascinating that we could have imagined.

When news breaks of something happening in the world, people share that on Facebook immediately and within hours the stories started appearing on Linkster. In fact Linkster is almost as fast and reliable a source of newsworthy information as Twitter, because it works in much the same way: crowd-sourcing.

Crowd Sourcing

In the old times of journalism you got your news from news outlets, same as everybody else. Over the past few years this shifted so that news was more likely to come to you from aggregators like Huffington Post. Nowadays with crowd sourcing sites like Twitter, and before them Digg and Reddit, the fastest way you get your news is from other people, directly.

Linkster takes advantage of crowd sourcing in a unique way: via what people are sharing on Facebook. It has elements in common with Reddit and Twitter, but is much different at the same time. The news, videos, and articles come to you pre-vetted by thousands of people like you, sharing this information in real time. And on Linkster you can vote up your favorite things as well as start a conversation about what you find, further refining the experience for others.

Since we take this data directly from our users, to present it back to them in an aggregated form, the question naturally comes up, what about our users privacy?

Privacy

Privacy is a huge issue for Facebook these days and rightly so. Just like in the 90′s when everyone was worried about cookies, today we’re worried about our profiles, and whether they’re being used, and how. Likester takes this problem really seriously and we have a novel approach that protects everyone’s privacy. Everything in our system is taken in aggregate. What kind of music do people listen to in Phnom Penh? What is the average age of a Seahawks fan? What is the most popular viral video trending right now? These are the kinds of questions our users and our customers are asking, and we provide answers in a way that protects everyone.

Linkster is the latest iteration of the Likester family of products. It provides you with the latest news, articles, websites and videos that are trending right now, in a way that protects everyone’s privacy. We’re really excited about this newest addition to our suite of products, and we hope you’ll give it a try.

Thanks for Reading,

Joseph Brown
Co-Founder and Data Architect
Likester.com

Flippant Pranksters Vs. Pompous Braggarts

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Exclusive Super Bowl stats examine what different fans stand for
By John Kenny, SVP Strategic Planning, Draftfcb Chicago, Katie Halpern, Associate Strategic Planner, Draftfcb Chicago

We all know the Super Bowl is more than touchdowns and chicken wings. It’s a gladiatorial combat between cities, egos and maximum-strength team personalities. Draftfcb teamed with Likester to determine what Giants and Patriots fans stand for right now, in real time.

Likester tracks what Facebook “likes” are associated with different Facebook pages. Given the popularity of “liking,” it allows us to analyze data on more than 10,000 associations between fans of the two teams, and shows other Facebook items they like. From this we can build a highly representative profile of each category of fan. Take a look:

The fan profiles that emerge promise drama. We expect to see a battle of super proportions between the Flippant Pranksters and the Pompous Braggarts.

Why are Giants fans pranksters? They’re big kids who root for Bernie Mac and read Dr. Seuss, and while they’re not opposed to flash—think Ari Gold and Mercedes-Benz—they find pretension grating. That’s why Giants lovers want down-to-earth cuties like Ellen Page and would feel blessed to live in sweats at a burger joint.

Meanwhile, as ambitious hero worshipers, Patriots fans are desperate for bragging rights. Their can-do attitude—soaking up advice from entrepreneurs and fix-it gurus—and appreciation for the finer things in life render them classic followers of the American dream. Maybe that’s why they seek out classic but practical beauties—Mary Poppins or Eva Mendes will surely fit the bill. Put them in their preppy finest, hand over a slice of pizza and an imported beer, and they’re ready to root.

Pair Giants fans’ loathing of affectation with Patriots fans’ popped collars and we’re sure to have some “Douchebag!” name-calling. Meanwhile, the flames will be fueled by Pats fans’ judgment of all things low-class or Giant. They’ll call “Nincompoop!” and warn their daughters never to mix with “that kind.”

Would we really have it any other way? On February 5, even insults should be super-sized.

Likester, now tracking over a half-billion Facebook “likes,” launches new Likester Affinities recommendation engine

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Likester™ was introduced less than six months ago and has since tracked over 500 million likes for its users. Applying the predictive statistical power such large numbers make possible, the company today released Likester Affinities, a broad-ranging recommendation engine using advanced proprietary statistical methods. For those who enjoy browsing recommendations on movie sites, perusing suggestions on book sites, or for anyone who just doesn’t want to miss out on good things, Likester Affinities provides the ultimate recommendation experience. With greater precision and broader scope than other alternatives, Likester Affinities recommends not only books or movies, but draws from hundreds of different categories.

An affinity is what you feel when you identify with something. Using proprietary algorithms, Likester Affinities presents you with a large number of personally-tailored recommendations: TV shows, local businesses, nightlife, musicians, vacations, restaurants, books, movies and relevant suggestions from dozens of other categories: all the items you are most likely to identify with, your personal affinities.

Likester Affinities’ recommendations are developed based on four dimensions:

  1. who you are (your Facebook profile)
  2. what people who are similar to you have liked (the Facebook likes of people who share your demographics)
  3. what you like (on Facebook)
  4. what the people who share your Facebook likes have additionally liked (on Facebook).

Using this information, and drawing from the hundreds of millions of Facebook likes tracked by Likester, your very own Likester Affinities’ recommendations should prove very appealing and engaging.

“The accuracy of Affinities’ recommendations can even be a bit unnerving at first,” said Kevin McCarthy, CEO of The Likester Corporation. “With over a half billion likes to work with, the algorithms behind Likester Affinities produce astonishingly good recommendations. I am myself sometimes amazed by how well Likester seems to know me, and by how uncanny Affinities’ suggestions are.”

In addition to producing recommendations of new things in hundreds of categories that you may enjoy, Likester Affinities offers games you can play, testing your knowledge of your friends’ interests. It also provides ways for you to explore both your own and your friends’ likes.

Moreover, you can actively manage your likes, which are now categorized for easy access. For the first time, you can curate the things you have liked, to ensure that your desired level and type of self-expression is happening on your Facebook profile. You are also able to view (and freely offer) shrewd recommendations for your friends’ consideration, by using Affinities’ analysis of their profiles and likes. You can learn more about what particular friends might like, or simply enjoy the fun of sending your friends cool Affinities’ recommendations directly from Likester.

Likester Affinities is now available at http://apps.facebook.com/likester

Likester Affinities is Live

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I think you all are going to like this, or at least some of you. A new version of the Likester application is live, and we’re calling it Likester Affinities. As of this post it’s a little buggy, but over the coming week or two we hope to iron those bugs out and officially launch the application.

Since the launch of Likester in late April, 2011, we’ve helped our users organize and track over 500,000,000 likes. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about, well, what people like. And while our existing application was really neat, it wasn’t very engaging for repeat users, and it didn’t have a lot depth that was easily accessible. Let me walk you through the features that we’re launching today, and our thinking behind some of them, in an attempt to make Likester a much cooler application.

Likester Recommendations
The whole application is premised on the fact that by understanding who you are, and what you like, we can predict interesting additional things that you also may like. One of the most interesting pieces of early feedback that we’ve gotten on this application is “So what, you showed me a bunch of stuff that I have liked. Why is that interesting?” Well, the things that Likester Affinities suggest to you are not things that you have “liked” through Facebook, though we hope very much that they will be things that you will actually like. In other words, you haven’t clicked “like” on any of the things that we’re suggesting to you. There are two ways that we present recommendations to you, and they’re pretty different, so allow me to explain them both:

Recommendations Based Upon My Likes
Here, we’re looking at things that you’ve explicitly liked (either websites that have “like” buttons, or Facebook Pages), and suggesting other items that we think might be interesting to you, as well. We present you a list of items, and also allow you to filter this list by category; so for example, you could only look at movies that we suggest, or restaurants. Next to any recommendation in this section, you’ll notice a “why?” link, and this is really cool to check out, because it helps you understand which of your likes are leading to these recommendations.

Here are some really interesting things that we’ve noticed about this system:

  1. Your likes will group and express themselves automatically – So say you really like snowboarding, you may have liked the activity snowboarding, and a few snowboard manufacturers, maybe even a snowboard area or two. Using collaborative filtering, the Likester Affinities engine will find commonalities among all your various snowboarding likes, and express them as hopefully plentiful and interesting things that you might enjoy checking out.
  2. Your likes say a lot more about you than you may know – We’d encourage you to use this as a tool to evaluate the self-expression of your likes. In other words, your likes are a significant part of your Facebook Timeline, and as you explore the Likester Affinities recommendations, and understand what types of other people “like” those things, you might reconsider your attachment to that like (or consider liking other items in the same area).

When Does This Work Great?
A well balanced profile of likes is the key to the Likester Affinities like recommendation system working well. If you’ve like a few TV Shows, a book or two, a movie, and some popular websites, that should be ample. To give an example, in my collection of Facebook Likes, I’ve got some clusters: Social Media, Seattle, Drums, Software Development & Technology, meaning, many of my likes fall within those four buckets. As such, I’ve got really cool recommendations for each of those buckets. In particular, liking some stuff from where you live gives you a real interesting local flare.

When Does This Not Work Well?
If you’ve liked thousands of things (yes, there are many people – maybe you know them), it’s hard to figure out what you’ve actually like, and make significant recommendations. Also, if you’ve liked a lot of those goofy statements (“I hate being last in line and then no one ever comes behind you HAHAHAH LOLZ!”) that were popular six months to a year ago, you may get recommended, shockingly, more things like that. And maybe that’s what you actually want to see, who knows.

If you’re not happy with your Likester Affinities recommendations try un-liking some stuff. The “My Likes” tab categorizes everything you’ve ever liked, and if you find something you want to unlike, just click “explore” on that item, and then on the item details page, you can unlike the item by using the official Facebook like button for that item. Once you’ve modified your likes, from the My Likes page, you can tell Likester to refresh your likes (this may take up to a minute), and you’ll get wholly new recommendations. It’s a pretty fun way to mess around with what your likes say about you.

Recommendations Based Upon My Profile
The more data that you’ve provided to Facebook, the cooler these will be for you. If your profile says where you live (city, state, country), how old you are, and what gender you are, we can make some startlingly cool recommendations for you. Our unique algorithms look at over 300 million recommendations, and chooses what we think are the best ones for you, instantly. So in my case, I can be viewing cool local restaurants in Seattle in a single click, without ever having to fill out any forms. It’s a whole new take on recommendations for local stuff, it’s recommendations by people like you, instead of random people. This section is really cool, and demonstrates what’s unique about where you live, among your age range. Through lots of tweaking, we feel like we’ve got some killer data here. Let us know if you agree or disagree.

This means that when a user joins Likester, they are instantly viewing potentially new things in their neighborhood that might appeal to them, without any hoops to junp through.

We hope you enjoy Likester, it’s been a lot of fun to build.

-Kevin McCarthy (Kevin at Likester dot com)

Seattle, WA, USA