Scour.com

Blending the best of algorithmic and human powered search, Scour.com is a meta social search engine which encourages voting and commentary on search engine query results called from Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Scour fosters community- building and enables discovery through user feedback, friends and groups while giving users control of the search parameters needed for accurate results based on their preferences.

The Challenge

Scour.com came to PAN as a social search engine in progress. Having just acquired a pre-existing social search platform in Aftervote.com, the Scour founders were looking to revamp the site, make some ambitious improvements, and achieve an impressive large-scale launch with coverage in major online outlets as well as major traditional press coverage. Scour wanted people to find the new engine exciting, fun and compelling, and not only try out the product, but begin using it regularly as their primary search tool.

The Approach

The PAN team was thrilled to jump on board with such an exciting new product, but knew that Scour was launching into a crowded search market. With a goal of reaching five percent market share by year’s end, Scour was looking to PAN to launch the engine in a big way The PAN team knew that for Scour to launch successfully as a social media tool, the team would need to dive in to the social networks already in place, connecting with bloggers, reporters, consumers and industry leaders through the likes of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. They would also need to also identify and reach out to key media and bloggers prior to the launch. The goal was to develop relationships and dialogue with major industry mavens who would give feedback on the product and recommend it to their large and influential audiences. Over the course of several months, the PAN team worked closely with the Scour executives to develop the best launch possible, using a combination of traditional and social media tactics to achieve PANtastic results!

Step 1: Never launch a product until you know it works!
PAN was dedicated to helping Scour launch as successfully as possible. That meant knowing what consumers would demand and what trends were already happening in the industry. The team worked closely with Scour developers to ensure that the engine was ready for heavy use when it launched. The PAN team spent a month testing Scour, recommending changes and design aspects, consulting on logos, page setup, layout design and identifying bugs or problems as the engine moved toward becoming a finished product ready for mass consumption.

Step 2: Know your audience, and make sure they know you.
While the site was still in the development phase, PAN began setting up the infrastructure needed to interact with key industry contacts. The team created a Facebook page to facilitate community building and also developed a presence on Twitter that allowed the team to track industry leaders, alert reporters and bloggers to news of the new product gearing up for launch and connect with potential users, all with an eye toward creating a dialogue with the search community prior to pitching the launch. News and tidbits about the development process were pushed out through these media to the wider search industry audience, and a community of curious Scour watchers soon began to form.

In conjunction with these efforts, the PAN team created a company blog for Scour to which both the Facebook page and Twitter account directed users, generating a listening audience eager to hear news as we headed to launch day. The PAN team was careful to treat this process as a dialogue, listening to the audience as much as possible and interacting with them to imbue the new engine with a real-life presence. All of these efforts provided forums for Scour users to give feedback and communicate with the team, in the end creating a transparent and honest platform from which to begin reaching out to key influencers in the blogging and media community as we asked them to cover our launch announcement. The PAN team allowed these key contacts to test the engine prior to launch, give feedback and participate in the launch process.

Step 3: Have an awesome launch week!
Launch day is only the beginning. Sure, sending out the press release and starting to see coverage was exciting, but every day after the initial launch date just got better and better, and that’s the sign of a really successful launch. With coverage in major online sites like Mashable, TechCrunch, LifeHacker and Webware, Scour saw a sudden influx of thousands of users. In the first week, the site had 280,000 unique visitors and growing, the blog had 7,300 views, Scour had 45,580 new users and 2,497,152 invitations to join the Scour community had been sent by eager new users. New searchers flocked to Scour as a direct result of secured coverage, with 21,000 views directed from Lifehacker, 4,000 views from Webware and 971 views from Mashable.com. In addition 2,000 users have come to the site from the Facebook community, and the fan base in the Facebook community is nearing 200, with over 100 fans following company updates on Twitter.

The Results

Launch week was a huge success. Both Scour and the PAN team celebrated the great results of many weeks of work. But the fun was just beginning! In the weeks following the launch, PAN worked hard to keep buzz and momentum around the launch going with continued briefings. The team secured coverage in major news outlets and blogs, continued updates with news and comments on the blog; kept up outreach and contact with fans on Twitter and Facebook and collaborated with Scour on new improvements which the team thought would enhance the site. As we move forward, the PAN team looks forward to continued success with a great team and a great social search engine!