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Archive for November, 2011

Use Your Klout for Good

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

You have Klout; your friends and connections value and take action based on your recommendations. Today, we’ve come together with (RED) and ONE and we’d like to ask you to use that Klout for good. One thousand babies are born with HIV every day and by 2015 that number could be near zero.

The (2015)QUILT represents the voices and pledges of everyone who is fighting for an AIDS Free Generation by 2015. December 1st is World AIDS day, when the (2015)QUILT officially launches, but if you’ve got Klout, (RED) and ONE want you to be one of the first to add your panel. Join us and let your voice be heard.

We’re excited to be a part of this! We know that if influencers come together, they can change the world. Please let us know what you think and how else you use your Klout for good!

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Klout Star: Joel Libava

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Our Klout Stars series highlights top influencers and how they got to where they are today.

About Joel: Joel Libava, The Franchise King®, is a brutally honest, mostly non-politically correct entrepreneur, who’s hyper-focused on teaching would-be franchise owners how to become wildly successful as franchise owners, and not lose their money. Joel’s book, Become a Franchise Owner! The Start-Up Guide to Lowering Risk, Making Money, and Owning What You Do, was just released. (John Wiley & Sons, Publisher) (www.becomeafranchiseowner.biz)

1. How did you get started in social media?

In 2006, I met George Nemeth, (www.georgenemeth.com) one of Cleveland’s first bloggers.

I started to leave comments on George’s “Brewed Fresh Daily” blog, and felt that I had known him just enough to ask him to have breakfast with me one morning. (I was starting to get fascinated with the whole “blogging” thing.)

We met at a Cleveland, Ohio area café, and talked for about 2 hours. He shared his views on blogging, and during that conversation, he helped convince me to start one up, myself. So, I did. (Thanks, George!)

I felt that if I was among the first to set-up a blog about franchising, it would really help me long-term. I looked at it as a way to differentiate myself. I also felt that it would help me build real credibility in my field. I was correct about both items.

I started one of the first-ever blogs on franchising (http://www.blogster.com/ohiofranchisecenter) in 2006. It was a great learning experience. I started to meet other bloggers in my local area, and attended some blogger “meet-ups.” All of us shared what we were learning, and as each one of us perfected a skill needed to improve on what we were doing, we freely shared our knowledge with each other.

My current blog, The Franchise King Blog, (http://www.thefranchiseking.com/blog) has been going strong ever since. It’s been a game-changer for me, and it’s even won some awards for content and influence.

Facebook was the first social network I joined after starting The Franchise King Blog, and I opened up a Twitter account a while later. LinkedIn followed, and now of course, I’m on Google+, also.

2. What’s your strategy for the content you produce and share on social media?

I write a post about franchising, small business, or both, and hit the “Publish button.” That starts everything in motion. If my post was written on any of my own web properties, it’s automatically sent out to all the major social networks. After about an hour, I check these networks, (Twitter, FB, and LinkedIn) to make sure the post went out. Later on that day, I send the post to bizSugar, a small business bookmarking website. (Full disclosure; I’m on the advisory board for the site.) I also send it to a couple of other social bookmarking sites that are a bit under the radar. Finally, I go back to Twitter a couple of more times that day, and send the post out again, but with different post titles. I’m a true believer of the GKTT. (Guy Kawasaki Twitter Technique.) Guy suggests that we make sure to send our posts out on Twitter several times a day. (I tend to overdo things, so his technique fits well with me.)

3. What advice do you have for someone who wants to take their social media influence and presence to the next level?

The way to take things to the next level, social media marketing wise, is to always be on the cutting edge of things. If you can be the first one in your circle to use a new software tool, or a new social media platform-successfully, you’ll be looked upon as an innovator….as someone to watch…to follow.

While I know in my heart that social media is really not about “the tools,” the reality is that lots of people are attracted to the newest shiny, bright objects. If you can find a way to use of the newer tools, and even teach others how to use them also, it could be a game-changer for you.

Look what Lewis Howes has done with LinkedIn. Chris Brogan took the time to learn how to use Google+, and secured a 5-figure book deal in the process. Several people have written books about how to use Twitter. If you want to learn about Facebook, who are you going to follow? Mari Smith!

Finally, if you want to increase your influence, and presence, stand for something! That’ll give you some Klout. People that know me, and have followed me on all of the social media channels that I’m on, know what I stand for. Some of the things that I’m passionate about (when it comes to my industry) don’t always make me the most popular guy at parties. And you know what? I don’t care. Some of my blog posts are controversial, and tend to piss some of the folks in my industry off. That’s okay. I speak my mind, and I don’t back off of things that I really, really, believe in.

You shouldn’t either.

Follow @FranchiseKing on Twitter!

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Small Business Saturday®

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Do you have a favorite children’s boutique or bakery that you can’t stop telling your friends about? Or a farmers’ market that has the juiciest apples? We are pleased to announce our partnership with American Express in efforts to support our favorite small businesses on Small Business Saturday®, 11/26. We offered two thousand lucky Klout influencers a $25 American Express gift card to shop small!

American Express is the founding partner of Small Business Saturday—a day dedicated to supporting the small businesses that fuel local economies and invigorate our communities. With almost 2.5 million Facebook supporters, plus a coalition of small business advocacy groups and public officials, Small Business Saturday is a part of a growing initiative that’s helping millions of small businesses across the nation.

Joe shops small, do you? Get out there this Saturday and let’s help fuel our local communities! To learn more, visit the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and follow @ShopSmall on Twitter.

Check out other great Klout Perks! Also, to learn more about how we choose people for Perks, see How to get Klout Perks.

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Do You Have Google+ Klout?

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Our mission here at Klout is to help you understand and leverage your influence. As we add more networks we can more accurately measure your influence. Today, we are excited to announce that Google+ is now a part of the Klout Score!

Since users started connecting their Google+ to Klout in late September, we have been hard at work building a model for G+ influence. With its explosive growth and innovative features, it’s a notable addition to the Klout score. From the get-go, Google+ came with circles, which set boundaries for shared content. As on Facebook, you can Like content from other users (called a “+1”) and comment on it. People validate your content by +1’ing it. They can also Reshare it — which will spread it further through your own circles as well as spreading it to their own. Since it launched, Google+ has seen early adopters crossing over from Twitter and Facebook, especially in the tech industry. The Reshare, which is in some ways similar to a Retweet, allows Google+ users to comment and discuss topics of interest similarly to Facebook, while having an immediacy of Twitter.

We are currently measuring influence for users who have already connected their Google+ accounts to Klout. Of those users, 62% are active on Google+ and therefore should see it affect their Score based on their ability to drive action on that platform.

Google+ and your Score

If you are active on Google+ and have connected your Google+ account to Klout, you will see a Score increase. Regardless of activity level, no user with Google+ connected will see a Score drop. Similarly, we do not penalize users who do not connect Google+ accounts. We measure influence on Google+ by analyzing public posts.

Distribution of Google+ Influence

The graph below shows the distribution for active users before and after adding Google+ to their Scores. In the graph below, the x-axis shows ranges of Scores. You’ll note that users active on Google+ tend to have scores between 30 and 60, which is much higher than our overall average Score of 20.

The median Score change for active connected users is 0.4742 and the mean Score change is 2.1577. We did see some users who have really embraced Google+ as a platform saw Score jumps of up 40+ points.

Comparing Google+ to Twitter and Facebook

Google+ has a hybrid of characteristics from both Twitter and Facebook. Facebook tends to be a tightly connected network, where users are connected to each other based on mutual agreement. You can connect to someone on Facebook only if they have accepted your friend request or vice versa. Twitter is a more loosely connected network because it is possible for you to be connected to someone whom you may not know. For example, you may follow Barack Obama, though he does not know you personally or follow your tweets. Google+ incorporates elements of both models with the use of circles, and is therefore more tightly connected than Twitter, but not as tightly connected as Facebook.

We compared the behavior of users on Google+ based on their other connected networks. The first plot shows how the distribution changed for users who are active on Twitter and Google+ only, the second shows the same for users who are active on Facebook and Google+ only, and the third shows the same for users who are active on all three networks. The last (with all three connected) is the largest group. One observation from these plots is that most active Google+ users are also active on Twitter and Facebook, which is why most users fall in the 30 – 60 Score range, and why you see a smaller change in the last distribution.

Comparing Social Actions on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Key similarities:

A comment, like or +1 on either Facebook or Google+ is a sign of engagement between the user who posted the content and the user who commented / liked / +1ed it.
A +1 on Google+ is similar to a like on Facebook, in the sense that both are validation mechanisms for “approval” of content.
A Reshare on Facebook or Google+ or a Retweet on Twitter both propagate the original content to a wider audience.

Salient differences:

A comment or a Like on Facebook may cause your content to appear in the news feed of mutual friends. On Google+ a comment or +1 surfaces your content not just to mutual friends but to anyone who has added you to their circles.
+1s on Google+ may also cause your content to appear in Google search results.
Due to the larger size of the network, a Retweet on Twitter may propagate your content to a wider audience than a Reshare on Google+ or Facebook. On the other hand, a Reshare on Google+ or Facebook may help you engage with an active audience, even if the size of the audience is smaller.

As part of the process of building this scoring model, we found comparisons with other networks helpful, but ultimately we look at each network holistically to create a scoring model.

Google+ Stars

We took a closer look at the “movers and shakers” on Google+ whose Scores increased significantly in this release. There are two interesting categories whose Score went up:

New Voices: Users who “jumped” on Google+ and found their voice there. Their Score was low to begin with, and we see some impressive rises here.
Growing Influencers: Users who were already influential on other networks, who increased their engagement through Google+

New Voices

Erica Joy (G+ account) works at Google TV and her Klout Score had risen by a whopping 62 points! She shares content predominately about politics and food, getting lots of engagement from her audience.

Tamara Pruessner (G+ account) is a nature photographer and uses Google+ to showcase her photos. She’s found an engaged audience who follows her work and that’s increased her Score from 11 to 67.

Growing Influencers

Thomas Hawk (G+ account) is a photographer, regularly appearing on http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/. He uses Google+’s excellent photo-sharing features which allow viewers to see all photos from posts conveniently. He is also an advocate of Google+ and connects photographers to the community. An already high Klout score of 69 rose to an amazing 82.

Tom Anderson (G+ account) is the founder of MySpace. He is “happily retired” and a power social media user. He took to Google+ with gusto, as many early technology adopters. He discusses topics such as gadgets and modern art, generating many comments from his numerous followers — he’s been added to circles more than 400,000 times! Tom’s Klout Score has increased from 64 to 77.

Jason Calacanis (G+ account) is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and writer. He shares a lot of photos about political issues, as well as posting about his startup activity, new apps, and related events. Like Thomas Hawk, he runs a This Week show — but for startups instead of photography. His Score jumped by 11 points.

The same trends are reflected among folks at Klout. Out of about 50 people, only 4 saw a bump. For instance, Megan Berry (G+ account) rose by 3 points, while Derek Wollenstein (G+ account) rose by almost 4 points, proving that being a tech guy pays on Google+, even if you only talk politics there!

In summary:

Active Google+ users on Klout will see an average Score increase of 2.177.
Active Google+ users tend to also be active on Facebook and Twitter.
Google+ allows for close interactions like Facebook, while retaining the ability to share widely like Twitter.
Users who see a big jump in score from Google+ generate a lot of discussion and engagement with focused, high-quality content.

We’re excited to add Google+ as the latest of our networks and would love to hear your feedback. Also, check out our own Google+ page!

Update 11/30: We recently resolved an issue with G+ data collection and have updated accounts that were affected. Today, some users will see an increase and some users will see a decrease as we take into account the new data and the distribution changes. Active Google+ users on Klout will see an average Score increase of 2.1636.

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Understanding the Klout Score Part I

Friday, November 18th, 2011

This post begins a new “Understanding your Klout Score” series. Today, we review our recent changes and in the future we’ll dive more into your Score, networks, and tips on how to improve your Score.

It’s been an interesting few weeks here Klout. Now that we are finally catching our breath, I think this is a good opportunity to look back at what we’ve learned and discuss the changes we’ve made.

The way influence is signaled online is constantly changing. New networks are born and new behaviors emerge overnight. The Klout Score will continue to evolve to support this change. The Klout Score and Topics will always exist in a dynamic state of improvement.

We will be more transparent
Our biggest priority with the new scoring model was to increase transparency. We added some insights to show why your Score changed but this isn’t nearly enough. Given the passion our users have for their Klout scores, it is clear that we need to do more to help them understand why the Score has changed and what that Score means. To accomplish this, we are focusing nearly all of our efforts on projects that relate directly to the transparency of the Klout Score. The team is really fired up to share the tremendous amount of data and thought that goes into creating the Klout Score.

In the spirit of greater transparency, here are some in-depth examples to illustrate the three, primary improvements we made to the Klout algorithm on October 26th.

Greater equality of networks
In our previous Scoring model, the main driver of your Klout was a primary network (the one you’re best on) and, to be honest, your influence on secondary networks was too small a part of your Score. Now, a user who has two networks that are fairly equal in terms of participation and influence will see a greater parity in the way we score those two. Certainly, there may be more potential to be influential on a network with many millions of users like Twitter or YouTube, but we measure that influence equally wherever it occurs. That said, there is no score reward for just adding networks that you do not participate in.

Example: Consider two people who influence the same 100 people to the same extent. One person influences their network exclusively on Twitter. The other person influences two audiences of 50 equally on Twitter and Facebook. In practice, they have the same level of influence, and now they will have the same Klout Score as well.

Interactions must be taken in context
Likes, Retweets, and other interactions have always played a prominent role in the Klout algorithm. We believe these are valuable signals of influence. What we found though is that some people are extremely generous with these interactions. People should Like and Retweet to their heart’s content, but we believe that interactions need to be measured in the context of the person interacting. This was the most prominent reason why some scores dropped.

Example: Consider two users who Retweet my Tweet. User A Retweets me but she also Retweets 100 others in the same day. User B Retweets me and only me. We now consider these ratios in our algorithm and consider the singular Retweet as a greater sign of influence. Similarly, if you selectively only give out one Facebook Like a week and you choose to do so for my content, that is much more meaningful than if you Like 50 times a day.

Stability and consistency
Seeing the ebb and flow of your influence on a daily basis is helpful, but we also understand that your influence rarely makes huge jumps in short intervals of time. We considered massive spikes and steep drops as problems in the way our algorithm behaved. Our new algorithm makes the Klout Score more stable by taking a longer window of time (90 days instead of 30) into account when measuring your influence.

Example: We used to hear about “the vacation problem” where users saw a steep drop in their Klout if they took a break from social networks while they were off the grid. Now the Score will remain much more stable during short breaks from social media.

These are three of the main improvements in this algorithm change, but there are many more small improvements in this release. With this release, the average Klout Score is close to 20 and a Score of 50+ puts you in the 95th percentile. We now analyze 2.7 billion pieces of content and connections a day.

We are continually improving and solving new problems with our science team. We appreciate all your feedback and are working to help you better understand what goes into the Klout Score with this new series. Let us know what you think!

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Top 10 Most Influential Airlines

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Thanksgiving is fast approaching! This season is all about family, friends, food, football, and five-finger turkeys drawn in crayon. I’m an East coast transplant in the Bay Area and like many other people, I’ll have to go the extra mile (or three thousand) to spend time in a four-day, carbohydrate-induced coma with my loved ones. For that, I’d like to give thanks to the airlines that make holidays at home possible.

What you’ll notice about the top ten airlines is that they all deliver outstanding personalized attention. Whether you’re musing over the in-flight movie on Twitter or uploading an Instragram of that rad airport sculpture, these airlines care about your content and your overall travel experience. Did you lose a bag? Check your phone! Not because you’ll find your bag there, but because you probably just received a message from an airline representative who is talking to the baggage team right now on your behalf. With that, here are the top ten airlines with Klout.

Was the list what you expected?

UPDATE: We’ve just added Copa Airlines! An affiliate of Continental Airlines in Panama, Copa Airlines is #3 on the list!

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The Vision Behind Klout

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

There has been a lot of conversation recently about Klout. As the CEO and Cofounder of Klout, I want to share my perspective publicly with you.

I get why Klout can rub people the wrong way. We are putting scores next to people and that can be initially off-putting. If you met anyone from the Klout team my hope would be for you to see that we are not elitist jerks but just a bunch of data nerds passionate about understanding the impact of every person online. We believe that every person who creates content online has influence on some topic, to some group of people. We want to help every person maximize their reach and influence and to be recognized for the impact they have.

Here I am sharing my vision nearly 3 years ago. We’ve come a long way since then, but the initial vision (first two minutes) is the same.

I started Klout in my bedroom almost four years ago while recovering from jaw surgery. During that time, I depended entirely on social media for communication. My goal was and is to create a system that recognizes people for the power of their voices on social media. I see Klout as a great equalizer for the normal person utilizing social media. Every day we are segmented by nearly every company we come into contact with. Usually this is based on how much money we spend; the level of service we receive is determined by the size of our wallets.

With social networks, I love that any person that has access to a phone can create an account, share their opinion with the world, and have an impact on their network. This value deserves to be recognized and I am proud of the work we are doing here at Klout to make that happen. To date, over 250,000 Klout Perks have been delivered to our community simply for being who they are online. These are real people getting real products of value and we look forward to continuing to help people understand, maximize and be rewarded for their influence.

The reality is that, while we’ve somehow become attached to celebrities like Justin Bieber, we don’t care about him. We may like his Christmas album, but Justin Bieber is not who Klout was created for. Everyone already knows the Biebs. We care about John Smith in Des Moines, IA who is passionate about music and wants to share his favorite bands with the world. We want to help John reach as many people as possible and hopefully unlock some really fun experiences for himself. This is only possible by continuously improving our service.

The idea of measuring influence is hugely ambitious and we have infinite work ahead of us. We know a lot of people think we’ll never get there but we love the challenge and you will never find a group more passionate about this mission than the Klout team.

As always, would love to hear any feedback you might have.

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We Value Your Privacy

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

Privacy on the social web is an incredibly complex issue that we approach with the utmost seriousness. Our mission is to help people understand their influence and to get the most out of it. With that goal in mind, it is critical that we are model citizens in this space and do everything we can to respect the privacy of our users. That said, like Facebook, Google, and nearly every other company in this space, we are working hard to figure this out, but will not always get everything right. Recently, we erred in creating profiles for registered users’ Facebook friends who had recently interacted with them and did not have private accounts. The public interactions were used to show which Facebook friends that registered user was influencing. While this is ok per Facebook’s policy, the data returned to us about friends does not include age information and when we realized that accounts for minors had been created we rolled the changes back.

We will always be vigilant in working with the platforms (Twitter/Facebook/etc), our legal counsel, and the community to do what’s right here. We messed up on this one and are deeply sorry.

I think it’s important to be specific, so here is how Klout thinks about and has always thought about social data:

Klout analyzes public data to measure a person’s influence. The best way to think of this is in relation to how Google analyzes public websites to generate PageRank.
Klout respects the privacy settings of all the networks it measures. If you have a private account on a social network and you have not explicitly given Klout access to your data it will not be analyzed.
If you are creating public data but do not want it measured by Klout you can opt-out by going to the privacy page.
Klout has no interest in understanding the influence of minors. We are working with Facebook and Twitter on this, as well as building our own safeguards to make sure this does not happen.

We look forward to continuing to work with the community and our partners to protect your privacy.

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10 Most Influential Talk Show Hosts

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

The talk show: a genre that feels unscripted and conversational, providing entertainment and sometimes enlightenment. For every talk show, there is a host with a distinct personality. There’s the comedian, the journalist, the provocateur, and the satirist. You can find all these styles represented here on our Klout list of influential talk show hosts. The top three are Ellen DeGeneres, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Fallon. What’s the key to their success? It’s a blend of exclusive online content, promotional updates, and daily musings. Oh, and sprinkle in some humorous one-liners like this one from Conan.

“In North America yesterday, for a few seconds, the entire internet went down. Or, as it’s known in my house, ‘The Day I Spoke to my Wife.’”

Check out the rest of the top ten here.