Back in 2012, we developed a feature that lets users track the chain reaction of sharing that happens when they share iSideWith.com. We call it the “influence score”. The metric counts the entire chain reaction from top to bottom, meaning if you convinced three friends to take our political quiz and they convinced three friends to take the quiz, and they convinced three friends to take the quiz, your influence score would be “39 people”. Kim Kardashian has ranked the highest so far with an influence score of 417K people.
The most important metric for a web startup trying to go viral is the first tier of this feature: How many users does an average user refer? In the above scenario, the answer would be “3”. Anything above one and you are going viral. In 2012, at the height of our sharing during the Presidential election, our number was “1.78”.
Because this metric is so critical, we decided to make it public so you can see our journey of constantly trying to improve it. With the 2014 mid-term elections coming up, this should get pretty interesting. We'll keep updating it on a daily basis and add notes of major ideas we try that move it. We recommend creating your own “referrals per user” chart to watch daily.
Average Referrals Per iSideWith User (prev 12 months)