GCruzYDLD24/7: Week7 RESPONSE to J.Voss Q1 & Q2

I also agree that large and small companies may use social scoring, but social scoring and influencers are both used to rate a person’s level of influence based on evaluating one’s followers, friends and postings on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. However, I question how accurate is the data being used and how are the results being determined for posting online for viewing? 

Some companies are able to score millions of people - soon billions - based on their level of influence with different assessment and measuring tools based on an individual’s level of influence, with the results of those scores getting posted online (netlingo.com).  Although social scoring could aide some companies by providing them with competitive information that can and / or will help a company owners to analyze what his / her competitors are doing in the marketplace to gain access to your company’s consumers / customers. In addition, the results from social scoring can provide data to reveal current market trends that may impact your company and your customers. However, since the results of social scoring can be subjective this could allegedly result in the information from various scores that are posted online to rate some influencers inaccurately due to flawed data. In addition, the social scoring process could create a class system amongst those who use Klout and social scoring as a basis for marketers to accurately measure and assess the effectiveness of a company’s ad and marketing campaigns.

References:

Schaefer, M. (2012). Return on influence: the revolutionary power of klout, social scoring, and influence marketing. McGraw-Hill.

Retrieved: October 18, 2014. From: http://www.netlingo.com/word/social-scoring.php

GCruzYDLD24/7: Week7 Response to G.Sulik Q1&Q3

I agree the Klout score can be a great tool for large companies to measure and assess the benefits and values of their marketing and ad campaigns, in order to determine exactly what a shift in their Klout score really means to the company, their product and their brand, and, what does all of this reveals from a competitive perspective. How and what is the competition doing and what strategies are they’re using to entice other company’s customers. Your customers’ demographic and psychographic information can also reveal how efficiently your brand personality (or your competitor’s) it is relating to overall consumers. The Klout score can also reveal how much of an influence you (and your company) have been with your followers / respondents. 

The small “start-up” (mom and pop companies) have just-as-much of stake in the competitive research and analysis process as the larger companies. Each must answer the 5 w’s and the h (who, what, when, where, why, and, how) when it comes to efficiently managing a company, remaining proactive, and keeping abreast of their competitors in order to be perceived as thought leaders and high level influencers, with fabulously high Klout scores. Since influence can also be the driving force behind an action, influence can also be responsible for the lack of response from an individual(s). Anyone who engages with an individual establishes an increase in his / her Klout Score’s rating and he /she also has the ability to become a high level influencer (klout.com).

References:

Schaefer, M. (2012). Return on influence: The revolutionary power of klout, social scoring, and influence marketing. McGraw-Hill

Retrieved: October 17, 2014. From: https://klout.com/corp/score

GCruzYDLD24/7: Wk7 Response Lydia Murray Q2&Q3

Klout (founded by Joe Hernandez) is a tool for measuring your online influence(s) and a Klout score of 30 shows expertise and a score of 50 plus shows a leadership and expert status. These numbers allow an organization to measure its company’s ad and marketing campaigns. The scores are public and are revealed on the social web (Schaefer, p.98).  This information can be used by large and small startup companies for the purposes of employee recruitment, generating leads for new business development, establishing a presence that will let other individuals know the organization has a strong influence, and, the competitive information can be used to discover and reveal what competitors are doing to attract your company’s customers and those in the marketplace (marketingprofs.com). Klout scores and social scoring can aide marketers in using effective content to attract new and existing customers and allowing your company to maintain a competitive advantage

In my opinion, the future of Klout and / or social scoring is a value-added tool that could not only large companies, but smaller startup companies with important competitive information. A company can see data information that connects a company to information that can assist with developing ad and marketing campaigns that target the needs, requirements and wants of their target segment. Klout scoring can be very attractive to celebrities.  Social scoring has attracted celebrities and public figures and those wanting to raise their score, especially among the Twitterati (Schaefer, p.106). According to Joe Fernandez, “We are in what I like to think of as an attention economy. … The score is a small part of the database iceberg.” (Schaefer, p.107) The future of Klout seems promising because according to Fernandez, “The timing is right for Klout.” People on Facebook used their actual names (their personal brand) and with an online presence one’s name / personal brand matters. In actuality, Klout analyzes data from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other categories / platforms and most important it is the impact of the influence and the relationship individuals’ establish as a result of their relationships with Klout. (Schaefer, p.108). Turner Broadcast Systems has connected with Klout to try Klout Perks campaign to support the TBS show called “Sutherland” to avoid the show from being discontinued. (Schaefer, p.139). According to Azeem Azhar, “The social scoring trend helps individuals to reclaim their data and its value.” (Schaefer, p. 169). 

References:

Schaefer, M. (2012). Return on influence: the revolutionary power of klout, social scoring, and influence marketing. McGraw-Hill.

How Klout Can Guide Your Online Marketing Strategy. By Nicholas A Kosar, Marketing Profs, February 13, 2014. Retrieved Wednesday, October 16, 2014. From. http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/24396/how-klout-can-guide-your-online-marketing-strateg