Deconstructing Klout Topics - Part 2

As a follow-up to my previous post on "Deconstructing Klout Topics" published 4 days ago (January 13, 2012), I thought it might be helpful to show how the test has progressed.

Late last night at approximately 10:30 pm (yes I was checking every 4-6 hours for changes) the topic "social media measurement" appeared in the blue sash on my Klout score. Yet during the day I received not even one additional +k on that topic. So what changed?

I received the last +k on that topic on January 12 in the morning and according to Klout that brought my total to 10 according to Klout (since I started this test on January 12th), yet before the last +K was  given I was also at 10 so obviously a technical issue on Klout's end for not upping the count. Regardless it moved me to position 59 between Perrier Pelser #58 with 10 +Ks (http://klout.com/#/BerriePelser) and Jeannette Baer #60 with only 9 +ks (http://klout.com/user/MyAgenda) and to my surprise Perrier also didn't have the topic on his slash either but Jeannette did.

This morning when I checked (after the nightly Klout update), the count of +k on this topic was correct at 11 and I had moved up to position 51 between Jeff Esposito (http://klout.com/user/jeffespo) and Goefry Zorrilla (http://klout.com/user/goefry) both of whom have the topic of "social media measurement" as part of their blue sash.

Now while I able to garner the topic in my blue sash, Perrier Pelser still doesn't have it as part of his blue sash, but he has been granted since yesterday a yellow sash for "Social Networks" (meaning Klout has determined on it's own that he is one of the top 20 influential people on this topic) which clearly shows that Klout has updated his sahes. As of writing this he's now in position number 59 and topic "social media measurement" for both of us, is still rated as High while for some lower in the list (fewer +k) it is rated as strong.

What might I have done that Perrier Pelser (aka Ber|Art WordPress ) didn't do, that I now deserve the blue sash? While I have been paid little to no attention to his on-line activities, I've made it a very conciousness decision to write the previous blog post on social media measurement, I've talked up a fair bit a conference keynote that I'm going to deliver next week on the subject of "Social Media Measurement" across multiple social media platforms that generated many retweets, shares, G+ and likes. The result, I got recognized that I do yield some influence on this topic while Perrier most likely kept doing what he does and garnered a yellow sash on the topic of "Social Networks".

 So what conclusions can I make from this test as how Klout Topics are influenced by the giving of +k's.

1. Getting a +K does move you up the topic leader board, but on their own doesn't get you a sash;

2. If Klout doesn't think you influence on a topic and you or someone else adds the topic to your list it isn't going to get you the blue sash unless you can truly demonstrate you actually yield some influence on the topic (as determined by Klout).

I think this is an excellent position for Klout take and should stop people from topic bombing Klout for bragging rights or for whatever value they see in the blue sash. And if you do truly think that you do yield influence on a specific topic that Klout hasn't assigned you, then yes get lots of +k on the topic, but adjust how phrase things to actually focus the the topic.

If you want to keep helping with this experiment, please be sure to G+, share, like and tweet out this blog post plus don't forget to give me a +K on the topic of "Social Media Measurement". Also give it a try yourself and let me know how your results compare.

Deconstructing Klout Topics

If you're at all familiar with the world of social media you've know doubt heard of Klout. I'm not hear to praise or condemn their attempt to measure and quantify an individuals success using various social mediums (social media), but to explore their recent changes to their topics lists.

The use of "topics" as part of Klout's evaluation is an attempt by Klout to ascertain and make public specific topics that individuals are influential on. This is not to say that you are one of the top influencers on a given topic just because it is listed in your profile but that from all your social media posts, engagements, likes, retweets, comments, etc. and of interactions by others that they initiated that these topics have occurred highest in your data stream.

Of course, Klout knows that they might be wrong and a single post that takes off might yield undo influence and affect these topics. So a few months back they allowed you to delete topics that you feel are not appropriate. But the key question became what about topics that Klout doesn't find and associate with you.

To resolve this issue about 2 months ago, Klout allowed individuals to add topics to their own accounts and to accounts of others. This is a simple process, you simply navigate to the persons Klout Topic page and click on the "Add Topic" button. Of course it will cost you. The cost 5 Klout +K (most people get 5 a day). And now you have a new topic in your (or someone else's) topic list. You can then choose to share this with the world via Twitter or Facebook and then encourage others to agree with you by giving a +K to that topic (a vote in simplest terms).

So that's the basic, now here comes the fun part. If Klout feels you're one of the top influencers on a given topic they give you a yellow sash on your Klout score and if you're one of the top +K receipients for that topic you get a blue sash. While so far I've only received a blue shash, I was curious as to how Klout determines who gets these. Is it purely a numbers game (the more +K the better) or is it a combination of +K plus some external factors. Faced with this thought, I of course went out to see what I could find.

Step 1 - I added a topic to my list of topics "social media measurement". I thought this was appropriate since I lecture on the topic at various conferences and have moderated a few panels on it as well. Of course simply adding the topic didn't generate a sash.

Step 2 - I took a closer look at a random sampling of those listed by Klout as top +K recipients and noticed from the ones I looked into that all had the appropriate blue sash with the topic listed. So I concluded that you had to be one of the top 100 to get it.

Step 3 - I mentioned my test to a few friends and started generating some +K to the topic of "social media measurement". What I noticed from this is that Klout evaluation of my topic changed from "Low" to "Medium" to "High" and moved the topic up high in the list. There is one further level of "Strong" which I've yet to achieve for this topic (I have for 4 other topics and for 2 of the topics I have a sash) and still no appearance on sash.

Step 4 - I looked at the list of top 100 again and noticed that my 9 +K placed me in 65th position. I then checked the +K counts of those 1 above (Matt_pierson)  and 1 below(Eric Melin) my listing. We all have 9+ Ks yet both of them have "social media measurement" listed in their sash but alas not I. I further checked and noticed that Eric Melin (listed below me) had comment of strong while Matt_pierson (listed above me) was also rated as high. So why the difference in ratings for the same number if +Ks?

From what I could see, it looks like Matt_pierson received multiple +Ks from same person. While the total +Ks is the same perhaps their is a waiting issue if the same people keep voting for your topic. Yet this didn't affect the order we appeared in so I'll assume it has something to do with timing (most recent to receive 9 appears at the bottom).

Based on reviewing these discoveries I have 2 theories. One that it will appear in my sash shortly, but it that might only occur during a major update (not a daily update). Or more likely that Klout is using other factors beyond +K to determine if you truly deserve the topic you'v add or was assigned to you.

So for now I'll wait & see what it takes to get "Social Media Measurement" as topic in my sash. Will this truly mean I yield influence on the topic and that people agree that I do or will it mean that I was able to manipulate the opportunity for a more informative sash. Perhaps a little of both.

If you'd like to help with this experiment, you can do two things. First make sure to Like, G+ and share this post (scoring tools like that kind of stuff) and secondly go to my Klout topics page and give me a +K on "Social Media Measurement". I'll be monitoring it daily for now, and I'll post back an update when I get rate a "Strong" and if and when it appears in my blue sash.

Defining a Social Marketing Campaign

As marketing departments jump on the "social media" bandwagon and start diverting large portions of their marketing budgets on them, many have no clue on how to effectively execute this effort, nor do they even have the fundamental understanding of how measure their success.


The first step marketing departments need to make is to stop calling it social media. Social media are the individual tools used to spread your marketing message through social interaction. For example placing a phone a call, holding a webinar, setting up a facebook page, establishing a Twitter account, creating social content (a blog), etc. When you add the different social media tools used in your campaign together you get a "social marketing campaign". Now that we got this settled, we can go on to establishing the basic criteria for any marketing campaign its purpose.


The primary purpose of any social marketing campaign ("social campaign") is to draw people together who have a common interest (your product). You can then engage & interact with them. Now for each organization you first need to identify and define your goals and objectives for this interaction. Typical ones include:

• brand awareness;
• increase in sales;
• improved customer relations;
• improved customer satisfaction

While there are hundreds of possible purposes, you need to pick one. Once the purpose is defined, you can then define the objectives and goals of the social campaign and implement tools to monitor your success towards them.

For example, if you goal is "improved customer relations" you can set an objective of reducing the amount of negative posts (tweets, blogs, etc.) or negative reviews with the goal of reducing these by 50% within 3 months.

With objectives and goals clearly defined, the best social media properties to meet the goals and objects can be identified. Creative material & an implementation strategy prepared along with the acquisition and implementation of tools and methods for monitoring the success of the campaign can be establish.

Last point that all marketing departments need to remember is that social marketing isn't anything new. It's been around thousands of years. Yet more modern examples can be found by simply going back to the early to mid 1990s. Back then a popular Internet hangout (yes mostly geeks) were Usenet groups. Usenet groups to those unfamiliar with them can best described as a place where anyone could post a message and members of the group could post responses for all to see (they would eventually morph into discussion groups).

Back in the 90s a food manufacture monitored a Usenet group on its brand. Within this Usenet group fans of the brand were quickly swapping posts about the various flavors and changes to packaging etc.  Little did they know that there was a fly on the wall monitoring all their posts. This worked wonders as the company would test market new flavors and then seed the conversation with "has anyone seen the new XXX flavor is it any good??". Very quickly those in the test market were responding with their thoughts (too sweet, blah, yummy) which would then be harvested and processed by the brand in determining if adjustments were necessary to new the flavors before a national release or if they should be scrapped all together.

Is this use of a Usenet group any different then what a brand could use its facebook page for or perhaps a facebook page created by an existing fan? Not in the least!

Let's stop trying to reinvent the wheel under the buzz phrase "social media" and recognize our efforts as "social marketing campaigns" and that they've been around forever.

Measuring Your Social Media Success

Last week I both attended and spoke at Pubcon (on of the search and social industries top conferences). The topic of one of my two conference addresses was "Measuring Social Media Success" during a pubcon session entitled "The Convergence of Analytics & SEO".

During my presentation, I equated Social Marketing to a fire and the difficulties of measuring how successful a fire is.

Do you measure the BTUs it generates, its circumference, its height, or how well it attracts people to it?

I'll be expanding on these points in a future blog post.

One of the key points I stressed right at the start of the presentation was the incorrect use of the term "Social Media". Media is a single device/tools/etc. The telephone is a media and when you make a call it becomes one of many different "social media" tools. The correct term we should all be using is "Social Marketing". 

A social marketing campaign is a marketing campaign that uses a variety of 1 or more social media tools. It's that simple!

I know that my message was well received along with many of the other points I was making by a quick review of the twitter stream from pubcon which was flooded with many atteendees tweeting out sound bytes from my session. The session was covered by five different live bloggers.

Some of the more tweets included:

“#PubCon @aknecht is doing a fantastic preso on measurement tools in SM. Wooot! Way to tie history and Analytics!” – @lyena

“@aknecht toolbox: kout, twittalyzer, peerindex, webtrends, radian6, trackur, raven – used for their INTENT #pubcon” - @marydelaney11

“Scoring tools measure how big the fish is in its pond ie Klout, Peer Index etc #pubcon via @aknecht” - @schachin

“When using your scoring tools measure how successful you are in your pond, don’t compare. Think purpose, why #pubcon @aknecht”  - @schachin

“Does it really matter if #JustinBieber has a 100 #Klout when he only influences little sixteen year old girls? #touche via @aknecht #PubCon” - @KelseyLibert

“@aknecht dishing out some great info in the analytics session. #pubcon” - @rehor

“#PubCon Facebook fans – what is your cost per fan acquisition? Important for your FB ad spend success measurements. @aknecht” – @leyna

“Tag your posts and tweets with your unique analytics code. Bitly is your measurement friend. @aknecht #PubCon” - @wrightimc

“@aknecht build campfires, not forest fires. control the WOM/community #pubcon” - @marydelaney11

For a great summaries of my address on measuring social media, please check out the different live blogging post at:

blog.search-mojo.com by Janet Drisco Miller

Bruce Clay Inc. Blog by Jessica Lee

Outspoken Media Blog by Lisa Barone

Search Engine Journal by Ryan Jones

The Crossing of Marketing & IT by Elmer Boutin

#Kloutapocalypse: Day 2

We're into the second day of the new Klout algorithm politely referred to by some as #Kloutapocalypse: and despite everyone's complaints the reality is Klout is not going to rollback anything. Of course the complaints are only from people who saw their scores go down. I haven't seen too many tweets or Facebook status updates screaming "WOW my Klout Score went up 10 points". From asking people I did hear from a few who stayed the same or went up slightly.

As part of what is called the "Klout Squad" was given the heads up on the new algorithm and interface a few weeks back and was on a group call yesterday morning just before the roll-out of the update started. This gave me a heads up of what to expect and to some extent come to the defence of Klout. Another part of the call was a high level (Klout's not going to share their algorithm in detail) of some of the changes in the algorithm and why scores are going to change.

So now that the dust has settled and I've had some time to investigate my own profile here are some thoughts and recommendations to dealing with the change.

1. Klout scores are just that a score based on your activity. There was no sudden drop since Klout ran a 30 day backdate of their data. So take a look your score might even be on the rise over the past 30 days, it's just that the base line has changed; The percentage change in my personal score over the past 30 days actually is marginally higher under the new algorithm. I was fortunate enough to have a screen shot of it from 2 days earlier as I was going to use it in a presentation next week.
2. Klout now values facebook activity equally to Twitter and other social properties. If you've only been concentrating on Twitter for the past 6 months and ignored Facebook then yes your score is likely to go down compared to someone who's been doing both. Since "Social Marketing" is not just one platform, Klout is correct in making this change.
3. The influence calculation has always been an exponent and some of the weightings have now changed. Klout is now putting a much higher value on interactions with your primary influencers. They even now show you who they are and what their scores are. This means you need to have serious interactions with people who are deemed influences to raise your score. You must be seen as influencing them.
   
   This is where I found some interesting and odd results in the new Klout. Some of the people listed (I do know who they are), I've never exchanged a tweet, saw them RT anything of mine. I have seen the odd "Like" of a facebook status update. This begs the question, what about all people who retweet my tweets? Do they not count? Personally I think I'm wielding more influence on them then some of my facebook friends.
4. For a few upcoming conference address I was planning and still am talking about measuring social media. Perhaps this will bring more people out to my sessions. The point of my addresses is not to put value in the score itself, but look at what it is telling you about how your expanding your audience and how effective you are at influencing them. This is something that hasn't changed even with the new algorithm.

To demonstrate the real issues and what I must do restore my Klout score if I should chose to, I turned Twitalyzer (a measurement tool that only measures Twitter influence & impact) and their comparison report between Klout and PeerIndex.

Before the New Klout Algorithm

After the new Klout Algorithm

You can see the dramatic drops in the various components scores that make up the overall Klout score plus the increase in "True Reach". What I tend to focus on is the percentile report (as calculated by Twitalyzer) which compares my score to other Twitalyzer users. For all but the Klout Network values were only minor adjustments in this percentile despite dramatic changes in the score. This tells me that I was equally impacted. When it comes to the Network score I have concerns.

These concerns as I expressed yesterday may be an issue with how the back-dating of the algorithm change occurred (which showed a dramatic drop on Oct 2 for no apparent reason) or as Klout explains on their site, I need to start interacting with more influential people to raise this score.

It's this last point that truly concerns me. If Klout is putting an exponential weight on the Klout scores of people your interact with, will people stop interacting with everyone and focus purely on communications with those who have a higher Klout score? I for one won't do this, but I'm sure there will be some will that try.

So for now, move on - nothing to see here but a new scoring model. And it's your own dam fault for agreeing to a MBO bonus based on a measurement tool that is owned by a 3rd party and subject to change at their whim. This is the same as SEO's complaining that Google changed their algorithm and their bonuses of how many pages were on the 1st page disappeared. Their bonuses should be measured on how effective their efforts were at driving quality traffic to the clients site. Just a a Klout score is an indicator of how effective you are at interacting with your audience, true success must be measured in how effective you were at using this form of communication to bring quality people to the corporate website, retail outlets, impact overall sales, improve customer satisfaction, increase customer retention, etc.

Klout Updates Algorithm - Scores Go Wild

Have you checked your Klout Score this afternoon (October 26, 2011)? 


Klout is rolling out a new interface and new algorithm this afternoon. I haven't heard yet from anyone who saw a significant increase, but lots of people complaining about big drops. Of course those who don't care about their score are complaining the loudest.


While I personally don't care about the actual number (beyond it's fun to watch it go up and down), the fact the my Klout score dropped from 68.11 this morning to 55.83 this afternoon is shocking. Was Klout's algorithm that bad that the adjustment is so significant or will be a matter of time for their servers to properly process all the historical data or alternatively just start processing the new stuff.


My theory is that since I'm a high volume user of Twitter, that Klout might have had issues pulling a historical record of my past tweets and that's why there is such a significant increase over the past few days (in the reprocessed data). I don't know, but will keep my eyes on this.

My biggest concern however is that organizations that use Klout scores for various things (including selecting event speakers, etc.) might not be aware of the change and still be looking to reward people with scores of over 60.

Here's klout 's take on the today's changes "A More Accurate, Transparent Klout Score" http://alank.ca/w3lHAl

Giving to Charity

Helping 6 Year Old Leah Raise $20,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada

 

Just over a year ago, my cousin's daughter Leah (at the age of 5) was diagnosed with Leukemia and a big part of the reason she is still with us today is because of organizations like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada.

In support of  The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada on Saturday October 15^th my cousin and his family will be participating in their first charity event, Light The Night Walk. They will be walking in honour of Leah’s courageous battle. 

They have set a goal for their team (Leah’s helpers) to raise $20,000. As of writing this, they have already raised $3,571.00!

While I won't be able to join them in this event, I will support them in every way I can. This includes donating $0.50 for each copy of my award winning book “The Last Original idea – A Cynic’s view of Internet Marketing” that is sold on Amazon between now and October 14, 2011 to Leah and her family's fund raising efforts. This includes both the traditional paper version and the Kindle version.

This donation is in addition to the book’s initial pledge to donate 10% of the its profits to the Toronto Seals Special Olympics Swim Club.

Please help support this important cause by ordering a copy of book Today. To order Simply visit any Amazon website and place your order or click one of the following links:

Amazon.com

Kindle Version

Paperback Version

Amazon.ca

Paperback Version

If you'd like to personally support Leah and her efforts you can sponsor his team as well by clicking on the following link and then choose a team member to sponsor. You have to sponsor a member of the team, you can’t just sponsor the team itself: http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=225954&langPref=en-CA

For more information on “The Last Original Idea” and to download a sample chapter visit http://thelastorginalidea.com