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
Gerri,
ReplyDeleteGreat post this week. You provided a great deal of information to back up your position. You bring up the idea of celebrities enjoying social scoring. Are you aware of any celebrities that are currently endorsed by Klout or any other social scoring site? Do you think that if "Hollywood" picks up on social scoring, that it will become bigger for the business world as well? I think in the music and entertainment industries, it could be seen as as staple to being able to choose which artist/actor/actress a management team, director or producer is going to work with.
Jackie
Hi Gerri,
ReplyDeleteNice job on your post. I think your vision for the future of social scoring is interesting, because it takes it away from the business world and focuses on the area it might be most effective. In my post I mentioned that I don't think businesses will continue to use social scoring unless they have proof that it increases revenue, but that doesn't apply to public figures. I think you make a really good about the value it can have to them, and it will be interesting to see if that is the market that social scoring becomes really valuable to, as opposed to the business world.
Greg
Hi Gerri,
ReplyDeleteGreat job touching on various key aspects of Klout and social scoring. Social scoring does seem to help companies access data that can aid—to some degree—in the development of a marketing campaign. However, certain social scoring platforms have had drawbacks that could impede the campaign development process. For example, prior to its acquisition by Lithium Technologies, Klout was apparently unable to consistently and sufficiently determine the details of a user’s influence (Brown, 2014). As Brown writes, “They didn’t know if the followers of an influencer were in the market for the product being promoted; they didn’t know if they had brand loyalty elsewhere; and they didn’t know how contextual the influencer truly was in the area of the promotion.” Without knowing who exactly high-scoring Klout users were influencing, brands would have difficulty getting their products in front of the right audiences, which would make it difficult to gain continued feedback from those key target groups.
References:
Brown, D. (2014, February 18). Why the Klout Sale is Bad News for Social Scoring, But Great News for Influence Marketing — Influence Marketing: The Book. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://influencemarketingbook.com/why-the-klout-sale-is-bad-news-for-social-scoring-but-great-news-for-influence-marketing/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteContinuation of previous post:
ReplyDeleteHopefully, Klout can improve its ability to reach the right users at the right times, and I agree that it has great potential to provide businesses with important competitive information.
Also, I thought you made great points about Klout’s ability to help establish an organization’s presence as a thought leader, and to help marketers develop effective content to attract new and existing customers. Klout’s potential to help content creation may be its primary strength, or at least one of its most important qualities, going forward.
I agree that social scoring may be particularly attractive to celebrities and public figures who want to gauge their influence or popularity. What benefits or problems do you think might arise with an emerging “attention economy”?