Klout purports to measure the influence of brands on Twitter. This presentation looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the effort.

1. Do you have Klout?
Do you want it?
Dan Yurman djysrv@gmail.com @djysrv
January 26, 2012
1

2. What is Klout?
2
 Online measurement of Twitter influence
 http://www.klout.com
 Measures online impact and influence
 The more engagement measured with your
tweets, the more influence you have
 Uses a numerical score of 1-100, but numbers
aren’t everything
 Average score is 20, anything past 50 is good

3. Examples of Klout Scores
3
Dunkin Donuts – 65
1. Food
2. Coffee
3. Brand
Starbucks – 79
1. Brand
2. Coffee
3. Food

4. How Klout Measures Influence
4
 True Reach – the number of people who act
on or share your content
 Amplification – a measure of how likely people
are to act on or share your content
 Network – a measure of how many top
influences are in your network

5. How to get more Klout
5
 Stick with a topic you know well
 Focus on mass markets / consumer goods
 Create meaningful content
 Engage with others authentically
 No games or tricks
 Publish frequently
 Be persistent, building a brand takes time

6. Benefits of a high Klout Score
6
 Drives traffic to your main web site or blog
 Increases brand awareness,
 Increases number of people who become
prospects leading to sales
 Supports differentiation from competition:
quality, price, service, value

7. Where does Klout work best?
Reason: Intense use of social media
7
 TV, movies, radio, arts, online media
 Sports: MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL
 Consumer end use food & beverage
products
 Home consumer electronics
 Personal care & OTC health products
 Major retail: Fashion & soft goods
 Stocks, investments
 Politics

8. Where does Klout not work well?
Reason: Low or no use of social media
8
 Science and industrial technology
 Supply chain parts manufacturing
 Business services: accounting and legal
 Extractive industries: coal, oil, gas
 Government / Military / Non-profits
 Pollution control / trash removal
 Agriculture & food production

9. 1 Critique of Klout
9
 Unresolved privacy issues
 Possible exposure of identifies of minors
 Holes in measurement methods
 Not all networks are analyzed
 New algorithm created new controversies
 Benefits accrue to the firm, not to the person
 Your score is their product. You are not their
client.

10. 2 Critique of Klout
10
 Klout score is not the same as Google Page
Rank
 You may have a Klout score and not know it
 Klout score may just flat out be wrong
 Inconsistencies in analysis of social networks
 Spam accounts get counted
 Your clients may be confused and possibly
unhappy if they don’t like their score

11. 1 ~ How to have a high quality Twitter
feed that builds a brand
11
 Stay interesting
 Be smart, opinionated, and entertaining. No one
cares what you had for lunch
 Be focused
 Love cars or passionate about food, then tweet on
what you know. Develop a specialty. Don’t tweet
off-topic
 Find your own pace
 A few tweets every day makes sense
 Don’t flood the channel with chatter

12. 2 ~ How to have a high quality Twitter
feed that builds a brand
12
 Don’t use automated tools to tweet
 People follow other people on Twitter, not bots
 Clean out spammers from followers
 Mingle
 Share interesting stuff from others, re-tweet!
 Spread the word
 Put your tweets on your web site, Facebook page,
and blog.
 Use mobile twitter tools for real time updates

13. Brand v. Klout
13
 Klout wants to be the de facto definer of
online influence
 Unlikely due to dominance of search engines
which don’t index Twitter
 Coming divergence between Google+ and
Facebook – different platforms with different
uses
 Where you seek influence depends on what
you’re selling

14. The social media world doesn’t begin or
end with Twitter
Use Twitter wisely Twitter in 1902
14
 Lets the world know
you exist
 Drive users to rich
content
 Build awareness of
products, services,
and brand value
 Still better than a
telegram