Inkybee review

After I expressed my frustration with the lack of depth for blog listings with the major media databases, a colleague of mine turned me on to something new:  Inkybee.

Billed as "Smarter blogger outreach...for busy PR pros," Inkybee takes one through all the steps of blogger outreach. It starts with discovering the appropriate blogs. Just enter up to three words or phrases that bloggers actually used in blog posts. Inkybee then gets to work. Within half an hour, Inkybee sends an e-mail listing appropriate blogs with a relevancy score and other metrics. The blogs can then be added to one's blog list. (Inkybee continues to work, sending e-mails every six hours. At this point, I am drowning in e-mails from Inkybee. It would be nice if there were a way to change the frequency of e-mails, such as daily or weekly.)

Inkybee provides statistics to evaluate blogs.

Inkybee provides a fine way to track blogger engagement. Based on the tips from the free guide "The Best Practice Guide for Effective Blogger Outreach," users can keep track of the bloggers with whom they have developed relationships. This includes actions such as following a blogger on Twitter, commenting on a blog, sharing a blogger's content and more.

Inkybee provides recommendations and ways to track blogger engagement.

Evaluation of a blogger outreach campaign also is included, with Inkybee keeping track of the blogs that mentioned one's client (based on appropriate keywords). Inkybee also can integrate with Google Analytics to measure visitor data tied to blogs. The reports then can be exported to Excel or downloaded as a PDF.

At this point, Inkybee is available as a free beta version. Many great improvements are expected in coming weeks, and pricing will be a "highly affordable monthly subscription" when officially launched. If you need to do blogger outreach on behalf of clients, I recommend trying Inkybee now.