Spinnakr, the Dupont Circle–based referral targeting engine for web traffic, has hired a nontechnical intern and launched a new feature, and it is actively looking for a community manager. The new hire brings the company's total ranks up to nine.
Spinnakr's product identifies what web page a user was previously visiting before coming to a company's site, and then displays a message specifically geared to that user. "For visitors who are coming from [specialty] publications or who are industry bloggers, it might show a special offer," says Blaire Jones, Spinnakr's Swiss Army Knife. (Yes, that's her real title. She does everything for the company except code.) "For those coming from social media, there might be a call to action to like the company on Facebook, or tweet, or answer a question on Quora."
The specific message shows up as a fully customizable ribbon on the top of a company's site that only users who have come from a specific place can see. For example, StrengthsInsight was launching a new product and gave the launch story to TechCrunch, an industry publication. Spinnakr created an engine to run on StrengthsInsight's site so that when the first 50 visitors from TechCrunch's story clicked through to the page, they were prompted to download a free trial.
Founded by Adam Bonnifield and Michael Mayernick, Spinnakr's predecessor was Giv.to, "a similar engine that was geared only toward political campaigns and fundraisers," explains Jones.
According to Jones, the new feature is a recommendation engine based on the origination of a site's web traffic. "This engine sends alerts, in real time, about significant traffic. It advises you to take action and can even tell you what to say to convert a lot of customers in a short amount of time," Jones says.
She recognizes that referral targeting services such as those that Spinnakr provides can often be "prohibitively expensive." While it is in beta, Spinnakr is offering a free month-long trial of its services.