Thursday, July 18, 2013

Infuenster's New Changes

***This was written a couple days after Influenster's update but was forgotten about until today. Some problems on their site have now been fixed. There have been other changes since the update too.***


Influenster's now have a score attached to their profiles, as well as, many other changes




I have mixed feelings about all the different changes on Influenster. I like that there is more to do on their site. However, I was a bit overwhelmed with all the changes so suddenly and all at once. I felt totally lost. I didn't understand anything and I had to really take some time out to read about all these changes on Influenster.  Now I am starting to get the hang of it. However, since this is so new and there are a ton of changes, I am discovering some technological problems. I know that Influenster is working on them but having so many changes on a website at once is inevitably going to cause some problems for members.

Technical Errors or Problems



  1. I could not fill out my demographic survey on Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. Finally after three days, I was able to complete the survey on Internet Explorer. Google Chrome still would not let me. 
  2. However, I now cannot log-on to Influenster using Internet Explorer and I have no idea why this suddenly happened. 
  3. Fortunately I can on Google Chrome but I cannot sign in with Twitter. When I try, I am given a message that says, "It looks like you have not yet connected your social media to Influenster." That is not true.
  4. There were missing brand badges that I have earned that should have been in my account.
Annoyances
  1. After completing my Expert and LifeStage badges, my Influenster score did not change. I was very disappointed. I kept sharing product reviews and answering questions in the different categories but still my score never changed.
  2. What do you mean sumit a beauty blog, cat blog, mom blog, wellness blog, and many others? I hope they don't mean a separate blog for each catergory. Most bloggers won't have that many different blogs. I feel those instructions need to be a lot clearer.
I am assuming they mean if you blog about beauty on your review site you would submit it under your beauty badge and if you also blogged about cat food on the same blog then it would be approriate for to also submit it under the cat badge also. However, I don't know for sure what is allowed and what is not in regards to submitting a blog since the instructions do not make that clear.
More Thoughts
Under each badge section it tells you the different tasks you can do to increase your badge score. One is to answer questions that other people have asked. You will see a picture of a light bulb, like the one below that will state, "Answer (badge) Questions" next to it. Another task you can do is to share your favorite reviews pages. That one will have a picture of a megaphone and will state, "Share Your Favorite (badge) Review Pages."





 

The bottom of all badge pages






I did notice that at the very bottom of ALL badge pages it tells you what each symbol means. I did not see this information anywhere else on the website. Those symbols will be put on the task picture when you have started or completed that task. I noticed that by the + sign it specifically states, "Repeat for different pages to increase your score." Now I am very eager to see my score go up. Nothing I have done has helped, yet. So I started sharing many review pages from different badges, hoping that I would see a difference in my score. Nonetheless it was fruitless. I don't have any idea if Influester is monitoring how many times someone shares something or not, at this point.

Everyday since Influester changed their website, I have managed to login someway (read technical errors above) and my score hasn't budged. What is going on? Maybe they tally up everything we've done once a month so you will have to wait a full month to see any changes. I don't know for sure because I could not find that information anywhere on their site.
Similarities
Influenster's new changes remind me a lot of Bzzagent but much more confusing. BzzAgent also scores each person's profile according to what they do when they participate in a campaign. Bzzagent also gives out achievement badges as a person completes certain milestones.

If you want to join Influenster, you will now have to be invited by a fellow Influenster or request an invite from Influenster on their website. Much like how Pinterest works when you first join them. What isn't clear is, whether or not their will be a some sort of wait before you are invited or if Influenster will send out an invite right away. The details of that are not mentioned on their website. To find out more information about Influenster simply click Influenster.

I hope this information is helpful to other Influenster's who are trying to figure out this NEW Influenster. I'm sure with time Influenster will be fixing all the bugs that they seem to have right now. This is a completely new update for them so there bound to have a lot of bugs and kinks to work out before the sight starts to feel normal and functional again.

If your a member of Influenster, have you noticed any problems? I would love to hear what your problems have been on their sight. What do you like about this new Influenster?


10 comments:

  1. Great article and I agree with the different blogs they seem to want to encourage. I have an "all-in-one" blog and can barely keep up.

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    1. Thanks Linette! I agree it's very hard to keep up with the blog stuff. Thanks for visiting and commenting. :)

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Robin! This should have been published when Influenster first made their changes. Oh well, at least its published now. LOL!

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  3. This is a great review of the new set-up and a good idea of just how much we don't quite understand yet! Thanks!!

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    1. Thanks for your comment and for stopping by. I think the Influenster site is improving now and has fixed many of their bugs and problems. Hopefully, it will continue to get better.

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  4. Excellent explanation of the changes

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  5. I'm so behind in activities, the changes really do not make a difference. I'm sure once I get back into the swing of thing and deal with any bugs, I'll be huffing and puffing. Thanks for the great post and the update!

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    1. Thanks Avon! It was confusing at first but they have fixed some of the major problems but still have a few more bugs to work out. It can definitely get frustrating at times. Thanks for your comment.

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