Get ready. Social scoring will change your life.
Nov 22nd
There is an interesting, and perhaps alarming, trend brewing on the social media scene. Take a look at a couple items in the news last week:
- The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas is providing perks to guests based on their Klout score (an assessment of social media influence)**
- By the end of the year, Twitter said their new analytics will provide influence scores for every user.
- People are now curating lists of the most influential bloggers by Klout score.
- Virgin Airlines offered free flights on a new route to people with high influence scores on Twitter.
- Hoot Suite allows you to sort Twitter results by the influence of the people in the list.
I’m guessing that within a 12 to 18 months, you will be able to use new augmented reality technology to scan a room of people with your smartphone and get a numerical social rating for every person in sight. I constructed the graphic above as an example, but the technology is already there to make this happen.
OK, first I need to get this out of my system. This CREEPS ME OUT.
Good. I feel much better now. On with the show.
While it may be a sad and disturbing reality that we’re about to create a new social media caste system, the business benefits are obvious and powerful. This system can provide highly-targeted marketing and PR opportunities.
Advertising Age reported that the Virgin promotion generated 4,600 tweets about the new route. This led to more than 7.4 million impressions and coverage in top blogs and news outlets like the L.A. Times and CNN Money.
This week, Klout began pulling in Facebook data to get a fuller picture of an individual’s social media footprint and they also have their sights set on LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, and even Youtube, for future integration.
And this is just the beginning. Forget about Klout scores, there will be competitive rating systems for everything and it will be available to anybody at a push of a button. Wouldn’t it make sense to assign numbers for single people on the dating scene based on “user ratings”?
It seems inevitable that you and “your number” are going to be compared, analyzed and dissected by everyone you meet.
Think about the implications of this.
1) Social influence is the new black. Your social score may ultimately be more important than your resume when getting a marketing job, especially at an entry-level position. Your information is going to follow you around and be available to every person you date, every potential employer, every waiter at your favorite restaurant.
2) Take this seriously. You know how some people whine that so-and-so blogger is only big because they got there first? Well guess what — the folks reading this blog today are probably already way ahead of the curve on social media sophistication. When it comes to social scoring, you have a chance to “get there first” too. Once these scores go mainstream — and it’s already happening — everybody is going to want a number … a high number. You have a head start. Do something about it.
3) Personal branding starts with social influence. Don’t take my word for it. The Harvard Business Review said that creating a robust online presence is the first step toward building a C-suite personal brand.
4) Prepare for the gamers. If you think all those people selling lists of Twitter followers is annoying, wait until people figure out how to game Klout scores.
5) Do you have a Klout coach? Here’s the business opportunity of the year. Become a personal Klout coach. Basically this is “personal branding SEO” right? Social scoring is going to become so important that people will certainly pay money to pave the way to a high influence score.
I hate the fact that we are on the brink of creating social media caste systems. However, we can’t live in a world we wish for. We have to live in the world that is. So let’s deal with it. Go figure out how to improve your Klout score. Watch for new scoring systems that are emerging. Participate. Dominate. It’s going to be important.
This is a new perspective on technology and personal branding that is more than a little icky. What do you think about this concept and its implications?
**If you are unfamiliar with Klout scores, here is a definition from the company:
The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.
True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.
Bringing down the Twitter snobs
Oct 26th
It seems that Mitch Joel and I are becoming the Social Media Odd Couple. I like Mitch. He’s smart. It’s just that I think he is so frequently wrong.
Like in his latest post, “Being a Twitter Snob is a Good Thing” when he states “it annoys many people when they follow you on Twitter and you do not follow them back. Too bad. Don’t do it.”
Mitch lives the life of a Twitter snob, exclusively following only the most select and obviously interesting people. His reasons:
- It is a way to de-clutter a cluttered social media world.
- Having select Twitter followers reflects better on your taste in connections
- Having an appearance of exclusivity adds to your credibility
Before I respectfully rip Mitch a new one, let me provide two points about my own Twitter strategy:
1) I absolutely block any obvious spammers, MLM marketers and list-builders from my Twitter stream because I do not advocate these business practices. So to that extent, I am not a person who follows everybody.
2) It is a free world and you should follow any Twitter strategy that makes sense to you, including Mitch’s.
Now, having said that, Mitch my dear friend — You. Just. Don’t. Get. It.
Reza Malayeri is exactly the type of person Mitch would not follow. He is an unassuming employee of a Veterans Administration Hospital in Seattle. He has a 147 Twitter followers, none of them are “A-List” by Mitch’s standards.
A couple of months ago, Reza sent out a random, funny tweet that made me laugh out loud. We had an exchange of corny comments and soon I was looking forward to seeing him in my Twitter stream. Reza made a real effort to connect by following my blog, commenting and sending me jokes.
Last week I spoke to Reza for the first time. I found out that he is a disabled U.S. Veteran. He is an awesome parent. He’s helping out his father by putting a family business online after working all day at the hospital. And after connecting with another member of the {grow} community, Arminda Lindsay, he was inspired to develop, sponsor and promote a Breast Cancer Awareness charity event in his hometown.
Folks, this man is a hero.
He is an A-List human being and I am HONORED and HUMBLED to be following him.
So my first point — There is an amazing person behind every single Twitter picture. Every single one. Who is Mitch Joel or anybody else to judge who is on the A-List?
Reza and I are now helping each other in a number of ways. We are creating new business benefits. How did it start? With a random, corny tweet.
Second point — Here’s the rule of creating relationships and business benefits through Twitter: You just never know.
You never know who will connect with you, you never know how they will connect with you, and you never know where it will lead. So why would you exclude ANYBODY?
To the Twitter snobberati, I honor your freedom to follow whomever you want, but kindly suggest you are missing out on the greatest networking opportunity in the history of mankind. And Reza too.
Bill Piper has no clue what he’s doing in social media
Oct 24th
I have this new habit. When I’m alone on a long car trip I will put out a tweet asking people to call me and keep me company. It has led to some serendipitous benefits, including meeting Bill Piper.
Bill called me seeking advice — lots of advice! He had begun a new marketing assignment and admitted that he was over his head. I’ve followed his rapid progress and he has graciously offered this guest post on his learning adventures in social media. By the way, he came up with the headline too! Here’s Bill:
Several months ago, I was handed the reins to my company’s digital brand.
I didn’t know what I was doing. At all.
I’m a young marketer and enjoy social media for myself, but the most I knew about digital B2B marketing was that I could really blow it. I work for a cutting-edge IT company, so our ambition was to do social media in the same manner: on the cutting-edge, and with excellence.
Starting from square one, I knew that I needed a solid plan with executable tasks and guidance from someone who had been where I wanted to go. So I took Mark’s social media marketing class and learned a sustainable process to drive our desired business benefits (revenue) over the long haul.
We started implementing our strategy earlier this year with blogging, SEO, and a few social media outlets. We haven’t done it perfectly. It hasn’t been impressive. But the thing is – it has WORKED!
We’ve secured sales leads, generated revenue, and solidified our brand recognition through social media.
I’m not an expert but I’ve outlined a set of principles that have worked, even when I had to work above my experience level.
1. Make humility work for you.
For most of us, an honest and objective look at ourselves should enable an attitude of humility. The difficult part is that it’s not always easy. To be successful, figure out the people smarter and better at their jobs than you are and ask them lots of questions. Who is the Mark Schaefer in your community? There are lots of gurus out there but who can you work with who really knows what he or she is doing? We all want to look smart, but asking for help and assuming a humble attitude of learning can be your biggest asset in developing your skill sets.
2. Focus. Develop your skills one by one.
Given the breadth of digital strategies, there’s a lot of knowledge and savvy that goes into successful marketing. What are the top three marketing skill sets you need to develop? Pick one at a time, get really good at it and move on to the next. Starting out, I learned proficiency in SEO first, then blogging, and then Twitter, etc. and, I’m going to keep learning, too.
3. Be committed and decisive.
With inexperience and uncertainty it’s easy to over-think things. When faced with uncertainty, I found it important to make the best decision I could at that specific time. I acknowledged that I didn’t know all the variables at play but would move forward expecting to make adjustments. I couldn’t commit to being perfect, but I could commit to constant forward motion.
Which expert are you more like in your career right now: the expert champ or the expert chump? If you’re a chump, it’s okay. You don’t have to be perfect in your social media execution. We’re all still learning, and there are probably things I should be doing that I haven’t even heard about yet. At the end of the day, though, I’m content with my ignorance-expert status as long as we keep getting results.
What has your journey been like? How are you learning and growing in your job?
Bill Piper works in business development and marketing for Claris Networks, an information technology firm in Knoxville, TN. You can follow him on Twitter at @billpiper.
Why are bosses anti-social media?
Oct 20th
Why are bosses anti-social media? There seems to be a lot of articles asking this question lately … perhaps even blaming bosses for the destruction of our social media hopes and dreams.
I’ve been thinking about this and think I have found at least one answer to the question in some classic management research.
One of my favorite business books is “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. This was written way back in 2001 when books had more than one idea in them.
The book is a classic and one of the lasting concepts was the “Level 5 Leader” — an executive that personifies genuine personal humility blended with intense professional will. While we may picture the prototypical executive as a charismatic celebrity dynamo like Richard Branson (perfect social media material) more than 20 years of research led Collins to believe that the most effective business leaders are more typically shy, unpretentious, even awkward.
In other words, brilliant executives who produced the most sustained business excellence in corporate America were definitely NOT the social media type!
I think there is a personality bias in social media because it is so … social. A lot of people just DON’T WANT TO ENGAGE (frequently followed by the words “damn it!”). That doesn’t make them evil, or even the bane of your social media existence. In fact, as Collins shows, they may be the greatest boss you could wish for — but they just are not going to play nice with you and tweet.
According to a recent survey by public relations agency Weber Shandwick, 64% of CEOs are not using social media, although 93% of them are using traditional methods to communicate with external audiences. That doesn’t come as a real surprise to me.
But an “anti-social” boss doesn’t mean your dreams of social media rainbows are over, it may just mean it will not involve your top executive. Instead of spending your time trying to “change” a perfectly good boss, look for other ways to deploy in your organization. That is a key trait of an effective leader — work with the cards you are dealt and overcome. Don’t keep wishing for a Branson-boss. Deal with it. Move on.
I should end with a caveat. I am assuming that your boss is effective, but just not social. However, if your boss is stupid, all bets are off.
Even if a boss doesn’t want to be social, they still have to understand it enough to say “yeah, go ahead.” There is no such thing as a grassroots strategic effort. The sponsorship must come from the top.
And with that, I’ll turn it over to you, the awesome {grow} community. What problems (and successes) are you having with YOUR boss and social media? Let’s work it out together in the comment section …
Illustration compliments of toothpaste for breakfast.
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