Klout has rolled out updates to its service, including adjustments to individuals scores for increased accuracy, more transparency and a new site design.
The most significant change and one that caught my eye was the introduction of “Moments”, Klout’s new feature claiming to give greater insights into your influence online.
Moments appears to be a new feature that is set to highlight the reasons behind the shift in your Klout score, making the service more transparent. However the introduction of this new feature has come at the cost of the three previous measures – True Reach, Amplification and Network Impact.
From a digital marketer’s perspective, simply taking a user’s Klout score at face value was never enough. Marketers need to be able to understand why a user has a high score, in order to ensure certain objectives are being met.
For example, those looking to spread content virally may look at users with a high Amplification probability. Looking to change public perception, you may look at targeting users with a high True Reach or Network Impact.
There is a big difference in people sharing your content or responding to it. Dependent on the type of content you are trying to push, be that perhaps a video or marketing message, exactly who you are targeting needs to be precisely tailored to suit your campaign.
True Reach, Amplification and Network Impact were three brief scores that made up a small but important part of the algorithm I personally use to build up a list of who I believe are the most important people to target undergoing a campaign.
I’m worried that Klout are playing too much on individuals’ narcissistic emotions rather than concentrating on delivering an accurate, worthwhile service that delivers a true benefit to the world. Otherwise they may as well just go back to developing computer games. They’re probably more lucrative anyway…
However, every cloud does have a silver lining. The introduction of Wikipedia pages as a measure of influence has brought @JustinBieber down from his perfect Klout score of 100 to 92, whilst boosting @BarackObama to 99, taking into account his real world influence.
More details on how the influence from each individual network is calculated can be found here: http://klout.com/corp/kscore/
Date: January 9, 2012
Categories:
A blogger’s resolution. Don’t blog often, comment often!
Many bloggers began 2012 with a common new year’s resolution – blog more often.
For some, this has meant setting out a specific timescale – blogging Tuesdays and Thursdays perhaps. For some, this means blogging at least once a day, without fail.
“Yes, regular thought leadership – that’s what my blog needs!”
The huge rise of people blogging on a regular basis has undoubtedly changed the web. In terms of content consumption and generation specifically, I now read more content from bloggers than I do from ‘mainstream’ media.
However, with this rise we have begun to become a race of selfish writers, with many forgetting how to give back to the blogging community. Successful blogs began not just producing great content, but linking and communicating with other blogs alike. However, the bloggers of today seem content with simply writing and publishing their own content, without a consideration for the blogging community as a whole.
This draws bloggers dangerously close to the thin line between being the really interesting guy at the party, and being the one who just won’t stop talking about themselves.
When talking amongst a group of people, you may bring up a topic or two, but you may listen to five. So why not reply to five posts from bloggers you favour, before blogging yourself? If someone has already blogged about a topic you were about to write on, consider replying to their post rather than blogging yourself.
This has two benefits. Firstly, it’s likely that they will check out your blog, and return the favour soon. Secondly, a lot of blog commenting platforms allow you to hyperlink your name back to your blog.
I’m not suggesting you go around spamming blog posts with links to your site, which are likely to be deleted and blocked. Rather, spend the time giving back to the blogging community, and you will start to benefit yourself.
What goes around comes around!
So this year, my new year’s resolution isn’t to blog more. It’s to comment more. Let’s start to give back!