Answer to Questions 1&2:
I think for a large organization or a small organization I would use Klout in the same way, to measure my influence and gain insight as to how my competitors are influencing our target market. It is important to have an idea of where your competitors stand because it puts things into perspective. You can think you are the best in your industry, but what do the numbers say. Since you probably do not have much access to an organizations P/Ls your best bet is to look at marketshare reports. Now we have Klout. With the rise in usage and importance of staying connected via social media for businesses, being influential on those platforms are equally as important. "Dane Hartzell, a chief digital strategies for Minneapolis based Bolin Marketing" stated that, "We have a project that is using influence scores for a leading global logistic supply provider. They are actually the largest company like this in the world, but they don't have the brand recognition of some of their competitors" (Shaffer, pg. 146, 2012).
I would use this information in either a large organization or a small one to position the organization as a leader by gathering information about the competition. Why is the score high? Why is their score low? What platforms are they using most? At what time of day? What is the content of their messages? All of this information can help any company large or small reposition themselves to make their organization more influential.
Schaefer, M. (2012). Return on influence: The revolutionary power of Klout, social scoring, and influence marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.
G.CruzYDLD24/7: Week7 Response to J.Voss Q1&Q2
ReplyDeleteI also agree that large and small companies may use social scoring, but social scoring and influencers are both used to rate a person’s level of influence based on evaluating one’s followers, friends and postings on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. However, I question how accurate is the data being used and how are the results being determined for posting online for viewing?
Some companies are able to score millions of people - soon billions - based on their level of influence with different assessment and measuring tools based on an individual’s level of influence, with the results of those scores getting posted online (netlingo.com). Although social scoring could aide some companies by providing them with competitive information that can and / or will help a company owners to analyze what his / her competitors are doing in the marketplace to gain access to your company’s consumers / customers. In addition, the results from social scoring can provide data to reveal current market trends that may impact your company and your customers. However, since the results of social scoring can be subjective this could allegedly result in the information from various scores that are posted online to rate some influencers inaccurately due to flawed data. In addition, the social scoring process could create a class system amongst those who use Klout and social scoring as a basis for marketers to accurately measure and assess the effectiveness of a company’s ad and marketing campaigns.
References:
Schaefer, M. (2012). Return on influence: the revolutionary power of klout, social scoring, and influence marketing. McGraw-Hill.
Retrieved: October 18, 2014. From: http://www.netlingo.com/word/social-scoring.php
Hi Jackie,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I love the title you chose! I thought you made a great point about Klout’s potential use as a tool to gain information about the competition and assess competitors’ influence. As you mentioned, this could help organizations to develop their social media strategies in order to position their companies as industry thought leaders. Since you mentioned having some social media management experience in your last post, have you ever used Klout or a similar tool at work?
Gerri- Thank you for your response. I agree... I am not sure about the reliability and accuracy of the data. I know for myself, when I signed on it said that my last Facebook post was from back in the beginning of September. I post on Facebook everyday, most of the time a few times a day.
ReplyDeleteLydia- Thank you as well for your response. I have not used Klout at work. I have to be honest- I think it is a great tool if you REALLY know how to use it. I am not all that familiar with Klout so I do no think it would benefit me unless I hunkered down and really learned it thoroughly. I will inquire tomorrow with the girl who does all of out analytics as to what she uses to gather her data.
Jackie
Hi Jackie,
ReplyDeleteNice job on your post. I think you make a good point about how similar the benefits of Klout are for large and small companies, and I think that highlights how important it is to have a really good understanding of social media and influence in order to use these things effectively. Everyone knows that influence is a good thing and they have similar goals with how to us it, so it makes it that much more important to have the knowledge and understanding to be more effective than your competitors.
Greg