Sitting on Klout 9
Posted by Luc in 
Today, we would like to feature a very useful and somewhat unknown Social Media tool. We say unknown, because unless you have absolutely needed to use it or are heavily involved in Social Media, you likely have not heard of it. But with an increasing amount of people owning accounts on multiple platforms of Social Media, we thought we would share it with you.
It’s called Klout, and it’s a website that lets you easily track your online influence via Twitter (it’s in the process of integrating Facebook). Basically you enter all your account info, and then it tabulates your “true reach”, “amplification”, and “network”. The True Reach is the size of your engaged audience, hence it’s how many of your followers are truly paying attention, via retweets or lists. The Amplification measures how spread out and various those true followers are, as in where they live, how diverse they are (always the same people or different ones), and how much you are tweeting/how many @replies you are getting. And finally, the Network score measures how influential those you interact with are themselves, as in, what their Klout score is like. Basically, if important people are @replying you and retweeting you.
As mentioned above, Facebook has now been included, as of just this morning, which will likely help the service blow up. With Facebook integration, users can now track the number of unique ‘Likers’, commenters, and comments they have. As the site continues to expand, it can’t be long before they add a Foursquare, YouTube, and LinkedIn option as well.
To demonstrate, I included a screenshot of my Klout score (which is 21…I don’t know what that means yet). Follow me @lgdoucet to help my score!
To join, check out www.klout.com
Mind the Gap
Just last week, The Gap revealed a brand new logo (top, left), one that was supposed to give the massive store chain a much more Post Modern and sleek look. The logo contained the signature three letter name of the store, but in a new font, and with a random blue half faded box slightly behind the letter P.
The image went viral, understandably so, seeing as how there are several million Gap customers out there who are online. But it didn’t spread the way the retail had intended. Within days, a website popped up where users were invited to protest the new logo by typing in whatever word they wished instead of G-A-P (check it out here). A fake Twitter account showed up too (it has almost 5,000 followers already), protesting the new logo. And in classic new age Social Media fashion, the tactics worked!
The Gap has announced that it is pulling the new logo, and reverting back to the same classic navy blue with white letters that it has sported for the past two decades. They broadcast the news on their Facebook page, stating “We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowdsourcing, we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.”
So pat yourself on the back, Social Media users. This is just another small victory on the long road to taking power back from large corporations using tools everyone has access to.
Facebook and You: Using the Like Button to Drive Traffic
How much would you pay for a 500% increase in website referral if you were a major online publisher? 20% of your budget? 50%?
How about 0%? According to a recent presentation by Facebook Director of Media Partnerships, Justin Osofsky, merely integrating the Like button into a website has increased web traffic by outrageous proportions for some very high profile websites. Sites like TypePad, Gawker, NBA.com and Global News have all seen traffic referral increase by a factor of at least two by integrating like buttons into their profiles.
How does this work? We’ll start with a look into the mind of your typical user who uses the like button. These users are the perfect candidates for social media, in addition to visiting 5.3 times more sites from facebook, they also possess an average of 310 friends, 2.4 times more than the average of 130. So in addition to driving traffic more, they possess more influence to drive traffic themselves. The users themselves tend to be younger, with an average age of 34 versus a population average of 51.
So, in order to maximize the proliferation of content of your company page, blog or any other social media object, the like button should be taken into consideration. And in order to maximize results, there are a number of things which can be done to optimize your “like”ability, which we will cover in a later post.
The Little Social Medialite that could
The power of Social Media is an untapped resource with unlimited potential. For the past few years, people have begun to wonder just how much strength one individual can draw from a few simple posts. With Twitter rising exponentially in the ranks, new precedent setting cases are surfacing of every day people voicing their unhappiness via their tweets, and actually getting a response.
Meet Breanna Hughes, an ambitious Social Medialite and dating blogger who has seemingly conquered all the latest mediums. According to her Twitter she is even mayor of a few locations on Foursquare and has over 3,600 followers.
A few weeks ago, Breanna made a trip down to the States, and was outraged at the length of her cell phone bill upon her return. She had not expected to be charged so harshly for twittering and texting while down South, and she voiced her frustrations on Twitter along with a photo of her bill. Within a day, she was contacted by Rogers (her cell phone provider) via some tweets, and was given the contact info for a department that eventually adjusted her bill. Her case garnered serious attention in Toronto, and her story was featured in The National Post.
Could this symbolize a new era in the field of Public Relations? There have been other similar cases in the past where companies dealt with complaints made via Social Media, but Hughes actually managed to get her bill changed. And with that victory, it can only be left to wonder how soon will be before we no longer need customer supports phone lines to voice our concerns?