Does Gini Dietrich Influence Me?

Saturday Gini Dietrich was on a panel discussing Online Influence in a Google Hang Out. You can watch it here: For Immediate Release the panel including a mixture of evangelists and skeptics. Gini rocked this round table.

I was out for an afternoon run that went wrong. Long story but ran much further than the plan. I checked in on Twitter to see what was going on and I saw Gini Tweet about the event:

I joked that Gini influenced me even though I am a big cynic since 99% of human communication occurs off social networks. And forget influence measuring. Each Brand and Business has a different goal. Nordstrom's wants you coming to the store and buying things. Huffington Post wants you sharing online their content driving traffic to their site. If Nordstrom's has content that goes viral using 'Influence' but not one person comes to shop that is a failure. If Huffington Post has links tweeted and shared over and over but no clicks on the links that is a failure.

So did Gini influence me yesterday? She sure has a high Klout score.

Well Yes and no. First off we are friends. Online we talk on Twitter, Facebook, Email and her blog Spin Sucks. Talk more on Email and her Blog. Both platforms influence measurement can not see. I share Gini's content often. But seeing her tweet was pure luck. Had I not seen it I would never of known about the Hang Out Discussion. Can she influence me if I do not see her tweet?

You can't influence online if your tweet or facebook post is not seen. And 97% go unread just due to the high volume in everyone's feeds. So if this is the case the fallacy I find is in how Klout and Peer Index measures. Gini is way more influential via her blog than any social networks. I have no idea how many readers she has. But with Twitter she might reach 600 people per tweet. That is a lot of Tweeting to match her blog reader ship.

But being philosophical I have never purchased a product or service because of her. I have read content she has shared. I read her blog. And I have a Google Alert for her because I thought it would be fun. But if you approached Gini wanting to influence me in some way because of her Klout score....not sure that will work. But if your Topic is such that she will blog about it...I guarantee you we will discuss your topic. On her blog. Or if the subject is one of such utter disbelief she might email me. But then Klout and Peer Index won't see that either way....will they?

Be careful. With 99% of more of human communication not taking place on Social Networks never mind public ones....you will get bitten. If you rely on these numbers to either market a product or service, build awareness or move content, or do not do your research of each influencer.

Online Influence? Bah I Choose Real Life

Yesterday we had a discussion going about Klout on Shift Digital's Blog. I have written extensively about Klout here in the past. But I want to look at the bigger picture of influence. Some people like my friend Jason Konopinsky think Klout has a slick algorithm but that since it can be gamed it is flawed. I have views that the whole online influence idea is flawed. At least how it is being viewed.

I think finding actual experts to test products and services would be a great use for these tools. But what is being pitched it using it as a marketing force. That you can technically by pass paid media, PR/Publicity efforts and real marketing and advertising if you can find these influencers. Well this is not true. Since maybe 1% of your network will see a Tweet or a Facebook post right there you are hamstrung on those two networks. Bloggers have inherent readership numbers but not often in the millions or tens of millions a major brand needs. 

To prove my point recently Brian Solis presented a slideshare on using influence. All his case studies were for product launches.  And sorry but he might be a marketer but I am a finance/sales guy who happens to be in marketing and all his case studies he presented he had zero proof they worked. The one example of influence working was from 2008. So basically since 2008 he couldn't find one other example showing success? Just stamp FAILURE on his post and slideshare. Also please note he also lists David Armano, and two people from Microsoft who all are biased because they either need Social Influence to work and be a success (Mr. Armano) or worked on the Windows Phone release (and we all know how well that went). I exposed bias in this post.

I recently blogged that the average person now spends 12 mins a day on social media networks. If we spend so little time how much influence via social networks can anyone have. I am pretty sure 99% of those you ask will say they like to communicate with friends and family, which might include 'discovery' of things. Just think 23 hours and 48 mins a day your customers are NOT using Social Media.

I know I am always negative. I will be positive now. Though I doubt anyone needs Klout or Peer Index vs simple Google searches for this. Chobani, my good friends in the Yogurt world, are an excellent case study on using influence to grow their business. In fact they have been doing this for the 18 months I have known them. They support fitness, health, and food bloggers big and small. They aren't trying to launch a product with influence vs steadily grow their business. If you have some readership Chobani will give you a case of yogurt to give away in return for the exposure on the blog with your readers. This is part of a larger integrated marketing plan. This isn't THE MARKETING PLAN. But they know that if they just convert 5 blog readers to Chobani who buy in real life, that free case paid for itself.

See real life trumps online. Be afraid of email and texts and in person word of mouth. That is where your success will be made or destroyed. Find the people who influence others off line and you will succeed. Because we say lots of things online that we don't mean or follow through on. Audi needs eople who can afford their cars buying their cars. They don't win if they have 50mil people chatting them up online who can never afford to buy their car. Find the real life influencers.

Klout and Influence is a tool. No reason not to use them where they fit. They will never replace paid advertising or public relations or even your social media efforts. They should be used as part of your marketing efforts where they fit. And be skeptical. Do your research. Just because someone is considered an expert and has high klout maybe they aren't. Klout says I am an expert on Yogurt (true) and Glee (not true I hate Glee). So send me your yogurt to try I might comment on Twitter. Send me tickets to see Glee filmed you will be over dubbing my heckling from the audience. Good luck with that.

 

How can Klout Measure Influence With So Much Private Communication?

In thinking about 'Social Communication' vs 'Private Interpersonal'. I think of how much I converse via email and SMS (1400 texts per month) vs 10 Facebook comments, though my tweets might be upwards of a few hundred a month. Cell phone 800 minutes a month. In person to person...whoa a lot. I email some very influential people I have gotten to be friends with. Ad Age 100 Bloggers. People who run Social and Digital for Fortune 100 companies and other well known National Brands. People I view as Brains and not the Zombie type. We discuss lots of Social Media fraud and hype in private at length in detail. One friend and I spent time dissecting the Facebook Brand Page Insights and how wrong they are (though better now they are still poor). This is someone Facebook actually kisses ass to because the company he works for is very important to Facebook's success.

So how can Klout or Peer Index measure my influence when visible communication online is so small vs how much I impact others overall. 

They don't see any of these discussions going on that are more important and influential than anything happening on the Twitter.

I still slam and destroy Mashable less in public now days but fully in private. I tell people verbally and via email almost daily that if you want to get real coverage of social media never use their site except for informative things. If you want to see a new Facebook feature go to Mashable. If you want to know if marketing on Facebook is working why would you go to a fanboy site. I mean Pete Cashmore obviously is infatuated with Mark Zuckerberg to a point of having posters of mark in his bedroom walls. (ouch that hurts Pete!). But Klout will never catch this. They won't catch how many eople I convert away from Mashable.

Or how many people I have converted in the supermarket dairy aisle into Chobani customers. I talk Chobani in that aisle there almost every week. My folks were asked the other week by the guy who works dairy 'aren't you the parents of that Chobani guy'. Klout would never know I converted probably over 100 people easily in the last 12 months to diehard fans of Chobani. I email with the Chobani Social Media Community and Communications Manager because I love the brand so much hoping to keep them a huge success with my insights. Yes she can take it or leave it when I give it, but she is always appreciative. Like when I explained this week why I don't read Mashable....in an email. 

Many really really smart people are leery about using Social Influence as anything but a small tool to accent the bigger picture. They know 98% of our human communication is private and would never comb Twitter and say 'Oh they used the word Starbucks 8 times this week they much be expert influencers let's contact them to help promote our new coffee'. And when you work with Brands do you have time to do this vs say see what coffee blogs have the highest readership and just go to the owners of those blogs? Shortcuts do not exist and we need to stop trying to invent them.

Why Klout is only Klout

There is a lot of discussions on Klout and Social Influence lately.


Some folks like Danny Brown are upset they can not leave Klout and that they measure him against his will. You should check the lively discussion because as a champion of Opt-in I agree with Danny.


A Letter to Joe Fernandez of Klout


This blog has brought up the silliness of measuring. As well as questioning the validity of it's data measuring. I will talk about influence in general in another post. I want to break down Klout and discuss should you use it? Is the information valid?


Klout measures your reach and if your web presence is such can you be influential with the spreading of links, tweets, data etc. 


The very smart Tom Moradpour who is the International Marketing Director for Pepsi says:


"Klout measures Klout"


Meaning you must decide if the definition of what Klout says it is measuring and what you feel it is, is of value. 


Currently some Brands and Businesses are reaching out to people with high scores and having them test products hoping for cheap exposure. But is this smart? Are these people really influential?


Guess what? No way to ever tell. I have in the past brought up the dark underbelly of the Twitter. There are hashtags that are sexual, offensive, etc. Go to the #TCOT hashtag and you will find people calling Obama bad names, that he is communist, that he is an N word (not all but they are there). Go to the Liberal equivalent #TCOL you will people who call Bush a Nazi.


Klout has no clue if the 'network' the person they are measuring is safe for your content. Would Gerber want to learn the folks high in Klout on Babies were networked with child abusers and have this come out? There is no way to determine who's network is safe, clean, acceptable for your brand.


Lastly Klout combs your Twitter feed and if you talk about a topic you are considered an expert. This has been really amusing. I am an expert on Rick Perry now. Why? Because I was on Twitter during the last debate and Bill Green and Ben Kunz were live tweeting and making fun of the lunacy. And many tweets had Rick Perry. And I responded and retweeted. Now I am an expert on him per Klout.


Many people have topics of expertise that are really funny. Danny Brown on Sheep for example. So we have no idea who is really influential, who is an expert, who has gamed the system or not. Because it can be gamed.


Klout is just a tool. You can take it seriously or not. I personally joke that I want my score falling because I am a rebel and seriously I don't care what my score is. But that doesn't mean you can't at least use the tool and decide what it means. You can check a person's credentials to see if they are what Klout says with a simple Google search. But then what value is a service you need to do so much extra work just to find if the data is real?

The Sentiment and Context Quiz

One of the biggest strengths and weaknesses about the Social Web is the ability to listen and track sentiment across the social web. Last Super Bowl Mullen Agency and Radian 6 held the Brand Bowl 2011 tracking the Tweets of the participants. If you Tweeted with the #BrandBowl during the superbowl to talk about the commercials, Radian 6 analyzed the results to gauge sentiment and pick the winners of the commercials.

The strength of Social Media is the tools enabling a business to basically have a personal web bot crawling around looking for everything that is said about you on the web: Twitter. Some Facebook. You Tube. Blogs. Media. Etc. This is powerful stuff for any business to have. I personally do not feel it should replace what you are currently doing, but instead add to it. Social Web is a free large scale focus group even if a little wild and wooly.

The good part is people for the most part talk fairly freely. The bad part is this is still a very small part of the conversation. There are 182 SMS Text Messages sent for every Facebook update. High School students average 3000 texts a month so obviously that blows away their communication on Facebook. And even text is a small % of their communication. We text, email, phone, talk in person, sit watching TV/Movies, surfing the net. This one and two way communication is easily 98% of our total communication during each day. Always keep that in mind. That 98% can kill your brand and you will never know it is coming. That 2% gives you a chance...just a chance to get out in front of a crisis or react to something positive like an unexpected demand surge.

But can we always trust the output of that 2%? Doesn't that depend on the input? If you asked people the day before the Super Bowl their view of Chrysler and then asked only the people who saw the commercial with M&M the day after what their view was I bet there was no change at all for most people. My own were poor quality, poorly managed, placing the guy who almost destroyed Home Depot in 5 years in charge only to have him lead you into bankruptcy wasn't smart, boring lineup, tax payer bailout. Commercial was cool but a waste of money in my opinion.The Brand Bowl would not show this. It just shows the reaction to the commercials vs the Brand itself. In which case the output was very positive for the commercial vs you can not extrapolate it to the view of the company/brand.

Now here is a short Twitter Conversation between Bill Dorman , Margie Clayman, and myself. (psst you should follow them on the Twitter if you do not, they are really smart, witty and kind people...#justsaying). What would you or a computer make of this?

From this what should Fig Newton take from this or what could they take from it? Anything? Would Klout think we are all Fig Newton experts? Would Fig Newtons think we really like them? Would Radian 6 or similar view this as positive or negative sentiment? Couldn't it be both? My comment could go both ways. What if Bill and Margie were being sarcastic like me? What if only one was and the other was pyscho for fig newtons they loved them that much. How much of the social web out put is like this?

Will Radian 6 pick up from this blog all the Fig Newton mentions and how would they be counted?

Sentiment and Influence are tools. You need the human element to decipher reality. Sometimes that reality is that you can not arrive at reality from your data. If the data is faulty, biased, corrupted etc, the output will be the same.

This is easy for a small business. Having to analyze real data that is manageable vs a mass of data can be done by a human. What about a Global Brand? They could easily have 500,000 or 1 million or more data entries to comb through each day depending on what is being monitored. If Bill. Margie and my conversation and this blog post was even part of 10,000 Fig Newton mentions today, do we trust the computer output knowing the other 9,997 could be just as flawed?

Where Klout Fails

Obviously Klout has done a superb job of being the defacto measurement for online influence. But often I think they miss out on a lot of reality because they are only measuring such a teeny fraction of online behavior.

But recently when comparing my 50 Klout score to three Klout rock stars with 75, 77, and 82 respectively I found something very interesting. If you look at gross numbers they have far superior numbers to me. But as if you take mentions, retweeters, and retweets as a percentage of followers I have better numbers.

Meaning a higher percentage of my network is doing something in reaction to my tweets and participation with them than some Uuber Klout people. So while my network is smaller. I have much more significant Influence on my network than they have on theirs.

75 Klout

 This network has 13.8x more followers than me

77 Klout

This network has 5.3x more followers than me

82 Klout

This network has 15.4x more followers.

Just take my numbers and multiply it by these numbers and you will see 

my influence on my network in general is greater than their influence on theirs.

The point of this exercise is to have you think deeper about what is influence and just maybe the higher the score does not mean higher the influence. 

Social Tuesday - Torching Social Influence for Marketing and just a bit of Facebook love

First off I need to state Ben Kunz has been killing it. Not sure if he is the smartest person on the Twitter or possibly Gunther Sonnefeld but they are neck and neck. Ben has been blogging using math lately over at Thought Gadgets. His latest post is brilliant.For the most part Twitter and Facebook are not Viral Platforms. In fact they are almost just plain NOT VIRAL. There are trending topics but rarely a trending piece of content. And it's the content, not a topic that is what viral is all about in Marketing.

A Deeper Essay into Viral Success

I can say a You Tube video that is viewed 1 million times in 1 month is Viral correct? But that comes down to just 33,333 per day. Considering how many people are on the Web world wide that is almost zero. 

Next some observations I wish to share as proof Twitter is really not a Viral Platform for Content:

This really dings Klout too and Social Influence. Notice Mari was tweeting about a FREE Webinar. In 90 minutes she got only 3 Retweets from her 100,000 plus followers. I don't know who Guy Kawasaki is, and maybe the problem is no one else does either and thus they didn't retweet it. But only 3? Wouldn't Mari have at least 100 friends out of 100,000 followers who would retweet just because it is her tweet? Obviously her 78 Klout does not include influence when it comes to Webinars or Guy Kawasaki.

Notice Mashable (I hate that mug shot serious who could ever follow on Twitter that mug shot! lol) has 2.3 million followers and got a whopping 17 and 40 retweets. The 17 was in 2.5 hours and the 40 was in 3.45 hours. Obviously Mashable has zero influence on the topics of HTC, Social Media, Tech and Mobile because otherwise wouldn't the 88 Klout score earn a ton more Retweets?

As we know the longer time lapses the less likely a Tweet was seen so I doubt it will bring up more. Caveat is if this is only recording Hootsuite Retweets (anyone who can clarify please share). To me this torches Viral and Influence (Klout)

Next Facebook:

Really what does gaming the system get you? I have proven no one will see your Brand Page Posts like a gazillion times.

First the positive for Facebook as promised. Cross posting photos for my client to Twitter that reside on Facebook has greatly increased traffic to the Brand Page. But the impressions are so wrong it isn't funny. Facebook is adding the network numbers of the 2 LIKES to the total. I mean seriously with 1800 Fans who wouldn't at least LIKE this delicious gourmet ice cream sandwich?!! No we got two because so few saw the post. Bad platform for marketing simple as that.

Lastly I won an award I am very proud of!

THE CHIEF ALIEN HAS BEEN BANNED BY MASHABLE FROM COMMENTING! 

They got tired of me exposing their Fan Boy Journalism and shoddy reporting. I never once used bad language on their site or said anything anyone would be offended by. But the truth hurts. This hasn't stopped me from commenting. But I can not comment with my Sky Pulse Media Twitter Account. Which BTW get's me back to these STUPID commenting systems based on Facebook and Twitter! 

If you require me to log in with Facebook to comment.....NO COMMENT

photo: ben andrus

Social Tuesday - Is Livefyre a Threat to Klout and maybe Radian6's?

Just some food for thought. I read a lot of blogs. I comment on a lot of blogs. Comments are public but the more we comment on blogs less time is spent talking on Twitter and Facebook. But do the Klout's and the Radian 6's also filter through comments posted via Disqus and Livefyre? 

What happens to Klout and all influence companies if more and more communication they can't see. What about listening tools like Radian 6? The more communication that is private the less available of the communication pool is there to determine influence and sentiment. I have already shown how Facebook use is in steep decline. LINK btw it is now up to a 33% decline per user per day from 22% in November. Twitter use is growing albeit at a slower rate but that is at least all public.

But I see the Conversation Engines of Livefyre and Disqus growing fast. And Klout and Peer Index sees none of this. And thus so much is being missed. I already proved that most world wide communication occurs not on social networks. Not just most. ALMOST ALL! If only 2-3% if via Social the pool of data is small. And in private we are much more free with what we say and share. LINK

So my take is as more platforms take us off the main Social Networks and into new playgrounds that some of these listening and measuring companies can't gather data from, their business models could be at risk. I am not worried about Radian 6 because even if they wind up with just Blogs and Traditional Digital Media that is a massive trove of data. But if Klout can not see what we are talking about to each other, their doors will be closed fast.

Beating Social Influence to Death!

Klout has been in the news, and many, too many Bloggers have been hammering on Social Influence Currency and how Businesses are going to basically discriminate against people with low scores. I know this benefits many talking heads and many of the businesses like Klout trying to become the default tool to see who to treat special.

BE CAREFUL!

Here are 8 people to check out with their Klout Scores compared to mine. These people all have bigger networks than me. They all have real friends where they live, I think (seriously I do not all mine are in NYC (like @cmonstah),West Coast, elsewhere. Not where I am because I live in the Forest with Coyotes and Wild Turkey's as I transition back East after 17 years in LA) My Facebook network has a lot of people who are very influential in the West Coast and some in NYC for Fashion, Music, Art, etc. But my Facebook profile is 100% private, so Klout has no idea who my friends are aside from Twitter. Maybe I have been more selective in whom I connect with on Twitter? Whenever I run my Social Influence it often pitiful compared to most. Except for Klout! But the other 8 people here get paid to give talks at conferences and at businesses, paid to travel, have very impressive positions at the businesses they work at or run, they do Podcasts, have influential blogs, write books, etc.

Maybe I have a self deprecating view of myself. I will say I seriously value my Twitter network. I do value Quality over Quantity. But this still does not make sense. That the Palms in Vegas would rank me equal or above these Rock Stars?! Bad Marketing Decision if this is based on Klout!

BTW I seriously recommend following all the folks listed here from my Twitter network. They truly bring great value and insight. Plus now they are now famous! Contact me if you want their autographs for just a small fee of course!

The Alien's Take on Social Influence

 

Recently I have seen a lot of blogs being written on Social Influence. This has me thinking about the meaning of Social Influence. What is it you are influencing? Just something being passed on?

Recently Tom Moradpour had a nice blog post about Social Influence. He wishes there were standards so we can all agree on what it is, then we can find it's actual value. I agree we need standards 100%. I also agree Klout has done the best to create a Brand. Even more impressive they respond on Twitter. I had the CEO and Founder respond to me on Friday over some tweets!

Tom's Post

Klout has improved  significantly now that the scores update on their own. In the past unless someone manually refreshed it was stale and old.

My specific issue with Influence Analysis is context and important information is not included.  Who is this person in real life? Are they someone who gets photographed and put in People Magazine thus causing products to be sold? Are you someone who moves sales needles just by people you call on the phone or places you hang out at? What if I am not on Twitter or Facebook and I have 3 close friends who tweet stuff I email them and it travels. What if I see something on Twitter and then call my friend who is the head buyer for Macy's and that call just got a huge order placed to a small fashion house? How can you determine where the influences came from in these scenarios? Is it just about pushing info that get's re-pushed?

What about the content? Great content get's moved on it's own. It has nothing to do with a person's influence it has to do with the content's influence. If I am a source of great content, and I don't share poor content what does that mean? It means you have to get me to see great content to have it passed on. 

And what about the goals of the influence? Is it page views so you can increase advertising revenues? Is it sales in retail stores? Is it people coming to your restaurant? Is it exposure for your art or writing? None of this gets captured in influence scores. How can you connect these things, especially with anything that happens offline. How can you know the kind of Influencer I am?

And what about the fact that most of our lives take place off line even if we are online so much. We have no solid way to measure off line Word of Mouth, Phone Call Influence, In Person Influence, the Influence from seeing Billboards/Print Ads/TV Ads/People on the Street, or even the influence of the Sales guy or the Special Deal at the store. And to really get Social Media Influence we have to tie this stuff in!

I know you think 'Well this is only online influence we care about.' Yes and No. All depends on your goal. I have mentioned before how much Ad Spend goes up in smoke at point of purchase. Social Influence does as well! Passing of Information is one thing, Action is another. Does it matter that my Chic Restaurant used Social to expose my place to 3 million people via Social for Free if no one shows up at my Restaurant? Or that 3 million get shown a teaser of my new book resulting in zero sales?

This is very complex stuff. My point is online Social Influence to me is a small piece to a bigger puzzle. It can mean way too many things. Every person or company hoping to push something via Social has completely different Goals and a Klout Score won't solve this. I still think Great Content, Great Product/Service, Great Customer Service, Great Price Point still trumps everything.

The Myth of Viral and Klout

Everyone wants Viral. The Social Media Industry in it's own best interest have created the Myth of Viral for Brands and Businesses. They talk about Influencers like they can help your Brand. But is this really the way to market and sell and engage via Social Networks?

First off I wish to give Kudos to Adverve: LINK They hosted an expert Josh Warner, who's company helps Brands with viral video views. Josh in his honesty claimed only 5 or 6 Viral successes out of over 120 Campaigns.All the campaigns met the view goals but only a handful went truly Viral.

Using Twitter as a better case study I was building a following for a client. Using HootSuite I could see very easily these metrics: Number of Followers. No. they are following. Klout Score (silly measurement no one should take seriously) and Tweets per day.

At first you are like a kid in a candy store. The feeling is the bigger the number of followers the more potential to spread my clients message. This turned out to be a false assumption. The two biggest metrics we should be looking at is how active they are on Twitter (No. of Tweets per day) and secondly the lower the number of people they follow the higher the chance they will see a Tweet from my client.

I came to this conclusion because we had a low number of Trivia Game players and that the players who had the smallest networks usually played and won. Why is this?

I use an average measure of 4 tweets per person on Twitter. This balances out the people who tweet once per day and those who Tweet a lot. The more accounts you follow the more Tweets that come into your feed, reducing the chance of you seeing a specific tweet that is not directed at that person.

Extreme example: @ChrisBrogan He has an 86 Klout and 150,000 followers. He also follows 140,000 accounts. So his stream should have about 560,000 tweets per day coming to him. GOOD LUCK 

GETTING YOUR TWEET SEEN! Never mind retweeted.

But someone who has a small network and is a heavy Tweeter means 1] They will see your tweet 2] They are using the service all day. Remember once a Tweet is missed it goes into the Twitter Afterlife Void of Nothingness.

The same holds for Facebook. Both Live Feeds are so filled with Clutter that it is impossible to get your message seen on a consistent basis. This doesn't make me negative on Social Media. In fact its a revolution in interpersonal communication. But to get heard as a Brand or for Engagement it is a pure crap shoot. Most Brand Fan Pages on Facebook have less than 0.1% Engagement levels.

Be Realistic - Have goals that are real. Don't be arrogant.

Bring Value - give your network a reason to WANT to engage with you.