LendingClub Report

Ecairn conversation industry influencer report Lendingclub Lending Club Inc. peer-to-peer
lending

Lending Club Industry Influencer Report
P a g e |1 conversation@ecairn.com

Table of Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................ 3
Scope ......................................................................................................................................... 4
1 – Community Map & Influencer Identification .......................................................................... 5
Top Influencers................................................................................................................... 5
Influencers Map .................................................................................................................. 7
2 - Share of Voice ...................................................................................................................... 8
Number of Mentions ........................................................................................................... 8
Message Pick-Up ................................................................................................................ 9
Sentiment Analysis ........................................................................................................... 10
3 - Share of Mind ..................................................................................................................... 11
People mentioning Lending Club the most ....................................................................... 13
Promoters and Detractors: ................................................................................................ 14
4 – Share of Conversation of P2P Lending Topics ..................................................................... 15
Number of Mentions within the Peer-to-peer Lending Topic ............................................ 15
Breakdown of the Peer-to-peer Lending Topic ................................................................. 16
Presence of Lending Club’s Influencers in the P2P Topic .................................................. 17
About eCairn ............................................................................................................................ 18


Background
The advent of social media has seen the creation of more than 180 million blogs as well as
the birth of countless social networking sites and message boards. Individuals in these
communities increasingly depend on each another to share information. This shift in emphasis
from mainstream media to consumer communities gives rise to a form of marketing called
influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is defined as a form of marketing which focuses on
specific key individuals or types of individuals who substantially affect the market. The
difference today, is that these influencers can be anyone from potential buyers, and industry
experts, to independent reviewers and celebrities.
Smart marketers understand the critical role influencers have in their industry. Influencers
are highly networked within their community and between each other. They are the people
prospective customers listen to because they are respected, trusted and usually independent.
Influencers are often conduits of a brand’s image, and the best ROI comes from communicating
with these movers and shakers.

Understanding who they are, how they relate to your brand and working to establish a
relationship with any of them is a critical task. eCairn's Industry Influencer Report provides a
wealth of data and intelligence coming from those influencers regarding your brand’s, such as:
• Share of Voice (How much a brand is mentioned compared to competitors)
• Share of Mind (How many influencers mention a brand compared to competitors)
• Share of Conversation (How often a brand is referred to along with key industry topics)


Scope
The focus of this analysis is the attention experienced by the Lending Club brand in the
personal finance community during the period of March 2009 to September 2009. It offers a
comparison to the Prosper.com brand in general and more particularly, on the topic of peer-to-
peer (P2P) lending. The personal finance community referred to in this document is a collection
of 1660 experts & enthusiast bloggers who have ongoing conversations on peer-to-peer
lending and other personal finance topics.

Twitter, Youtube and other forms of social media were not included in this study.

Blog Feeds 1660 Represents over 110k+ relevant conversations over six months
Twitter Feeds No
Yahoo Q&A No
Youtube No


1 – Community Map & Influencer Identification
Influence ranking is determined by cross referencing nodes in target communities and
determining how frequently they communicate between one another. This is the first step
towards effective influencer marketing. By identifying the influencers and gaining a better
understanding of them, marketers can better plan for more purposeful interactions.

Top Influencers
The table below shows the top 25 influencers in the personal finance community (1660 total).

Blog Description
http://www.getrichslowly.org Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance That Makes Cents
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com Free Money Finance
http://www.thesimpledollar.com The Simple Dollar
http://www.consumerismcommentary.com A Personal Finance Blog Since 2003
http://www.bargaineering.com Bargaineering: personal finance blog with anecdotes
http://www.thedigeratilife.com Personal Finance and Business in Silicon Valley
http://www.wisebread.com Wise Bread | Personal Finance and Frugal Living Forums
http://www.fivecentnickel.com personal finance tips @ fivecentnickel.com
http://www.budgetsaresexy.com Budgets Are Sexy | Pimpinâ€™ Personal Finance Since 2008
http://www.mightybargainhunter.com Mighty Bargain Hunter
http://www.ptmoney.com Make Extra Money, Save More Money, Spend Money Wisely
http://www.frugaldad.com A frugal perspective on money, career and family
http://www.cashmoneylife.com Money Management, Small Business, Career
http://www.ncnblog.com No Credit Needed - Debt Reduction Rocks
http://www.mymoneyblog.com My Money Blog - Personal Finance and Investing Blog
http://www.freefrombroke.com A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks
http://www.financialsamurai.com Financial Samurai - Honorable Personal Finance
http://www.christianpf.com Financial help blog, debt help and other financial resources
http://www.canadianfinanceblog.com The Canadian Source For Personal Finance
http://www.mydollarplan.com Retirement, Tax, and Personal Finance Tips
http://www.lazymanandmoney.com Lazy Man and Money
http://www.bloggingawaydebt.com Blogging Away Debt Our Journey to a Debt-Free Life
http://www.moolanomy.com Personal Finance and Money Management Tips
http://www.moneyning.com Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning
http://www.doughroller.net Money Management and Personal Finance


This graph displays the current community influencer profile for the personal finance
community. Each dot on the graph represents a single blog source, with high influencers in
dark blue, medium or magic middle* influencers in royal blue and the long tail of influencers in
blue
light blue/grey There are many more long tail sources which share fewer connections than
blue/grey.
magic middle and high influencers. It’s possible to locate a specific brand’s blog influence by
plugging it into the chart. Notice that both Lending Club and Prosper.com’s blog is not heavily
networked with other personal finance blogs and thus have relatively little influence in the
community at the time of this study.

*The magic middle: while they lack the connections of higher influencers, they often write about
niche or topical content and are radically influential to larger communities.


Influencers Map

Influencer mapping shows the interconnections within the community. This makes it
easier to identify particular influencers who occupy strategic places in the network. The map
below displays the connections between the top 25 influencers in one big cluster shown in red.
ed
This cluster shows increased affinity between the high influence bloggers rather than “sub
specialization” or network affiliation. When compared to our other sample reports for
Amazon.com and Lancome, one can see that the personal finance community unique in its
interconnectedness. Unlike the other reports, the top influencers of this community are very
closely knit and communicate with each other frequently.


2 - Share of Voice
Share of voice is defined as the ratio of mentions of a brand in conversations taking place in the
greater community. It can be calculated by taking the # of brand mentions divided by the total
# of conversations. Share of voice allows marketers to understand how frequently a brand is
brought up through conversations within the community. This statistic allows marketers to
benchmark their presence against competitors and observe the effectiveness of buzz marketing
campaigns.

Number of Mentions

The following graphs illustrate the volume of conversations with mentions of the
Lending Club, Prosper and Wells Fargo brands during the period of March 2009 to September
2009. Graph1 shows the “share of conversation” for these three brands and graph2 displays
trend over time.

Graph1 Graph2

Lending Club’s share of voice during September 2009 was above Prosper and Wells
Fargo’s (605 to 410 and 490 respectively*). This only represented between 0.37% of the overall
respectively*
personal finance community discussions in April 2009 to 0.62% of the conversations during
March 2009.

(*)Lending Club and Prosper’s own blogs are not included in this study


Pick-
Message Pick-Up

Message pick-ups indicate what marketing activities and programs caused an increase
in volume of conversations between influencers. This helps determine if news or marketing
efforts cause influencers to distribute the intended information or message to their community.

Lending Club:
• March 25th: Self Directed IRA Introduction:
http://www.p2plendingnews.com/2009/03/lending-club-self-directed-ira-retirement-account/
http://www.p2plendingnews.com/2009/03/lending-club-self-directed-ira- retirement-
account/
• April 28th: Finovate and Prosper Re-launch in California
http://www.lazymanandmoney.com/live-from-finovate-startup-first-demo-session
• May 4th: no explanation
• September 2nd: partly due to $2500 prize contest
http://blog.mortgageinfotoday.com/2009/09/02/news-sign-up-with-lending-club-for-a-
chance-to-win-2500

Prosper.com:
• April 28th: Finovate and Prosper Re-launch in California
http://www.wiseclerk.com/group-news/services/prosper-reopens-for-california-lenders-
nationwide-borrowers
• July 14th: SEC Registration Is effective
http://www.p2p-loans.com/2009/07/prospers-sec-registration-declared.html


Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment Analysis is the process of examining individual conversations from
influencers and categorizing the content as positive, negative or neutral perspectives on the
brand. Note that this applies to all Lending Club personal finance topics concerning the brand,
services, corporate image and representatives.

Lending Club displayed a sentiment
distribution which is quite common to
industry competitors. The majority of
conversations in the personal finance
community, which mention Lending Club,
lean towards neutral sentiment. Lending
Club also shows a healthy ratio of positive to
negative sentiment (7:4)**

Notable points of sentiment:
• Rise of positive and neutral sentiment
towards the end of May due to launch
of Service XYZ.**
• Short spike of negative sentiment
about due to news about competition
early June.**

*Disclaimer: For the purposes of confidentiality on behalf of Lending Club and its competitors, several figures and
names under the section “Sentiment Analysis” have been changed and/or fabricated to protect the privacy of the
company.

P a g e | 10 conversation@ecairn.com

3 - Share of Mind
Share of mind is defined by the percentage of influencers who have talked about a brand in a
certain time period. It can be calculated by taking the # of sources that mentioned the brand at
least once divided by the total # of sources. This metric allows marketers to compare a brand’s
visibility in the market to its competitors.

Lending Clubs’s SoM is fairly low at 0.04% (77 divided by 1660). However, competitors
fall into the same range. The graph below depicts the SoM breakdown by influence tiers and
benchmarks Lending Club against Prosper.com.

Lending Club had a slightly lower share of mind in the Magic Middle and Long Tail
compared to Prosper. Both brands have plenty of opportunities to foster awareness in long tail
communities.


Below is a complete map of all influencers in the community. In this particular case,
influencers who have mentioned Lending Club at once in six months are represented by nodes
in blue Nodes in red have not mentioned Lending Club in the past six months. Although they
blue.
do not have a dominant presence, it is clear that Lending Club’s existence in the community is
not limited to particular blog clusters and permeates through a large portion of the network.


People mentioning Lending Club the most

eCairn Conversation™ has the ability to identify promoters and detractors and sort their
influence level by ranking. Taking this further, analysts can compare a brand to
its competitors within the marketplace by calculating the number of posts related to each brand
and then rating the sentiment of conversations from positive to negative. The table below
shows the influencers who have spoken about Lending Club the most. Influencers have square
icons in dark blue Magic Middle in blue and Long Tail in light blue
blue, blue.

Influencers

Magic Middle and Long Tail bloggers


Promoters and Detractors:

Promoters/Detractors are defined as influencers who have mentioned a brand at least
five times in a six month period and have left positive/negative sentiment towards the brand in
each case.

Here is the breakdown of Lending Clubs’s Promoters and Detractors**
Magic Middle
Influencers

Long Tail

Promoters 6 24 55
Detractors 1 9 24
Ratio* 6:1 8:3 2:1

*Ratio is Promoters:Detractors (Approx.)
:

Lending Club’s promoters outweigh
its detractors.

**Disclaimer: For the purposes of confidentiality on behalf of Lending Club, several figures under the section
“Promoters and Detractors” have been changed/fabricated to protect the privacy of the company.


Conversation of Topics
4 – Share of Conversation of P2P Lending Topics
Ownership of a topic (the outcome of positioning) is defined by how many times your brand is
mentioned along with the target topic. It can be calculated by taking the # of brand mentions
associated with the topic divided by the total # of conversations associated with the topic.

So how does Lending Club perform in the peer-to-peer lending topic?

Peer-to-
Number of Mentions within the Peer-to-peer Lending Topic

(Period of March 2009 – September 2009)

Both Lending Club and Prosper owned a fair equal share of the peer-to-peer lending
topic. Neither has had a significant dominance of the topic over period of this study.


Breakdown of the P2P Lending Topic

Expression clouds allow you to understand the key expressions encountered in P2P
discussions from the community. This knowledge should be leveraged in marketing collaterals
and digital properties. Note, that eCairn Conversation™ is capable of creating expression clouds
in multiple languages. Below is an 'expression cloud' (created by our Expression Explorer) of the
most frequent expressions encountered in P2P discussions in the private lending community:

Marketers should analyze the complete list of expressions and look for highly relevant
words. Below is a more extensive list of the top 100 expressions on P2P lending from
Conversation™. The words are ranked from most frequently used to least:
1 to 25 26 to 50 51 to 75 76 to 100
lending credit card debt savings ira
lending club good lending companies online
loan prosper self directed ira great
peer to peer risk market amount
peer lending borrow money related service
money social lending lending club account consider
credit personal loans earn bank account
credit card return finance peer lending companies
peer-to-peer lending
interest rate investors company business
borrowers lending club notes enhanced by better well
investment savings account feed from ozh p2p loan
funds personal add to del.icio.us line of credit
credit score new best good credit
bank lending club review annualized return credit report
time payments option lending club performance
account companies lending club ira balance transfer
year peer lending site net annualized return fees
month better lending sites high
rate of return financial site free
offer lend money website lending club offers
debt roth ira lending club investment lending club investors
lenders p2p credit karma cash
p2p lending help club and prosper check
peer-to-peer lending notes work individuals
credit card debt personal finance mutual funds peer loans


Club’s
Presence of Lending Club’s Influencers in the P2P Lending Topic

Below is a map of all influencers who mentioned peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in
conversations at least five times in a six month period. Blogs that did not mention Lending Club
are shown in blue Blogs that mentioned Lending Club in the context of P2P topics are shown
blue.
in green This sort of overlay allows marketers to see that Lending Club’s presence is still quite
reen.
diffuse across the sub community and not limited to clusters.


About eCairn
eCairn Inc. is a software technology company, founded in October 2006. We specialize in
community and influencer marketing and differentiate by focusing on the question: “Who
matters?”. Our motto is: “You can monitor billions of conversations, or listen and engage with
people who matter”. eCairn Conversation™ is the best platform for enterprises and
marketing/public relations firms that want to map communities, listen and engage with
influencers and measure the impact of their engagement.
Our headquarters are located in Los Gatos, California; in the heart of Silicon Valley. Our
founders have a background in collaborative filtering, linguistics, software development and
software engineering at well known companies such as Hewlett Packard, Sun, Xerox, eBay and
Motorola.

Detailed customized reports specific to your brand(s) and competitor(s) that also
include relevant consumer posts and expert analysis are available.

Weekly live demos of Conversation™ are available from our website at http://www.ecairn.com

Contact us at, conversation@ecairn.com or call (650)388-8962 for more info.

Additional acknowledgements: Data comes from eCairn Conversation™, Graphs are built
with Touchgraph, Tag clouds are built with Wordle.


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