My Klout Score Is 54, But My Clout Score Is Much Less

In the last 30 days my Klout score has increased 11 points (from a decent 43 to a much more respectable 54), and will probably go up another 2 or 3 before leveling out. I’m slightly ashamed to admit how pumped I am about this. First of all, I have no idea how the Klout score is really calculated, except that one’s Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin activity all play a part. There’s lots more to it, like the influence of those interacting with you, the influence of your followers, etc. In the end, for me it’s just a number that I can compare to similar people in the social media industry that can provide some bragging rights.

Recently my dad wrote a blog post titled “I Liked it Better When “Clout” Came with Age and Wisdom.” Even though, in his words, I am “faster and smarter, with better memory and language skills,” (thanks Dad!) he has experience and wisdom on his side. Now, because of Klout, I’m apparently more influential than him in social media, to an extreme degree.

Which one am I?

While his post brings up a good point, basically asking why Klout matters when it’s clout that is the real measure of influence, it isn’t asking the right question. I am growing up right in the middle of the social media generation. I work as a Community Manager and deal with social media on a daily basis. So of course I am going to have more influence in the social space…right now. In reality, this is completely irrelevant. My Klout score will probably always blow my father’s out of the water, unless he really does start tweeting and posting more on social channels (once I show him the ropes, of course). If he starts being very active on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin…well, I’m screwed. The question he should be asking is: “I know I’ve got clout, so how do I translate that into a Klout score that will match my real world experience to my online image?”

In the end, clout will always win. It effects Klout scores whether it’s obvious or not. My dad’s blog gets comments from CEOs of some of the largest independent ad agencies across the globe, he has people asking him from countries like China and Brazil questions like “You haven’t posted anything since May 28th, it’s been two weeks. When is your next post going up?” I’m lucky if I get two comments from readers on one of my posts, and that includes spambots. My dad’s experience and knowledge gained from that experience is more valuable to anyone, and everyone, than what I can give them. Sure, I can spout statistics about Twitter and Facebook like it’s my job (because it IS my job), but in the end I can run campaigns for companies on Facebook while my dad is capable of starting companies that will run those campaigns on Facebook. Clout is not something you have 13 months after graduating college, it takes a lifetime to get that. While I have learned an immeasurable amount about the advertising industry and social media in the last 9 months, I have a long way to go if I want to compete with my dad’s clout score. For now I’ll have to relish having more Klout than him, until he learns how to earn that too.

Meet Melvin: The Social Media Savvy Machine

I stumbled upon (not that StumbleUpon) an article about Melvin the Machine a little bit ago and I’m hooked. Rube Goldberg machines are fascinating on their own…but one that ties directly into social media? Awesome.

Melvin is the result of the creative minds at HEYHEYHEY, an agency based in Holland. The agency was approached by art space MU to design their show for Holland’s major design event – Dutch Design Week. They were given complete control with one requirement: “Mu gave us complete freedom on one condition: the show wasn’t to be a show of new products, but it should rather be a moment.”

HEYHEYHEY brilliantly designed a machine with a complete identity: he (Melvin) was able to update his blog, Facebook profile, and Twitter account by himself, via certain actions performed during his performance. Was this it? Of course not: “…we wanted Melvin to reach out physically too. During a run Melvin released balloons filled with Helium outside the building with a card attached to them asking the finder to return the card (sadly none of them were returned). As a means of promotion Melvin also printed his own posters and created his own t-shirts and totebags. Most of them were sold before they even had time to dry.”

So here’s a summary of what is going on: Melvin is a machine that can create promotional swag, update his social media profiles and blog on his own, and he also took pictures and videos of spectators during his performance. Spectators weren’t just watching him, he was watching spectators. The video below doesn’t do the best job at showing all of these features because, they explain here in greater detail, that they wanted to show the full run as best as possible, and not have to keep cutting to Twitter and Facebook, etc.

Watch the full run below to be fully impressed. And go to Melvin’s website to learn all about him.

Quora Is A Toothless Shark

Almost a year ago, when I started blogging, I wrote an article about Quora, comparing it to Wikipedia and saying that it could be the next big thing. I’ve followed Quora since its early days and always thought it had great potential, but it never seems to tap into it.

I recently came across a tweet expressing disbelief in that Quora was included on a list of 10 Over-Hyped Startups That Fell Off The Face Of The Earth. While Quora certainly hasn’t fallen off the face of the earth (it’s numbers are still growing), it hasn’t exactly been front-page news for the last six months. Half a year away from the game in social media might as well be a lifetime. Companies form and fall apart in less than six months in this industry, so it’s a testament to Quora’s bravado that it is still around and able to grow.

Quora = Clark

I like to think of Quora as a toothless shark. When you’re swimming in the ocean you will inevitably think about sharks at least once and, following that thought, always have it stored in the back of your brain. Quora is like a shark, swimming below the surface unnoticed, but has the potential for something that will, in the shark’s case, quite literally grab you. However, Quora has no teeth. It surfaces occasionally, creating a lot of buzz and attention, but then disappears. This shark has no teeth. For people, like myself, who it attempted to grab (which it did, but briefly), it wasn’t able to hold on. Why does it have trouble digging in and becoming a consistent service? Here’s what I think:

• Quora is cluttered and disorganized. It wasn’t a problem in the early days of Quora because there weren’t as many people, topics, and questions. But the main feed is filled with miscellaneous topic symbols, a jumble of questions, and your notifications.
• The ranking system is rendered moot because so many people answer the same questions. When there are fifty-seven different answers to a question like “What’s easier to learn, snowboarding or skiing?” It becomes impossible to try to get your answer voted up or thanked. In the social media world people want to SAY what they (think they) know, not read other people’s answers and vote them up.
• The credibility of answers is never truly known. The feature of being able to add your own title (Community Manager) or a question specific one (my career involves dealing with Facebook every day) is a great one with the intention of allowing people answering the question the ability to add their own credibility to their answer. The problem is that unless these people are celebrities or industry leaders there is absolutely no way to know if these people are legitimate. There are no links to other accounts the user may have (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin) from what I can see, and this needs to be available. I can say “I’ve worked for Facebook for the last five years” on a question and get immediate credibility that isn’t deserved.
• The Twitter feed style of the homepage is not the right style for Quora. An updating vertical feed is great for Twitter because the service is about quick relays of information and content, with added abilities to have quick conversations with anyone and everyone. Quora has even tried to copy this with their @mentions and profile layout. The problem with Quora is that it’s not a site designed for quick, sharp comments, observations, and links like Twitter is. The site is about Q&A. That is it. People go to the site to find answers and ask questions. It needs to be optimized to allow quick search (beyond just a search bar) for questions and topics.
• In the end, users don’t need to stay on the site for long. Q&A sites aren’t sites that people will spend hours on. It doesn’t have the ADD-inducing qualities of Wikipedia, the intimacy of Facebook, or the 140 character attitude of Twitter. For the same reason people aren’t spending loads of time on Yahoo! Answers (as entertaining as it is), people simply don’t need to spend time on Quora.

I want to make clear that I think Quora has a lot of potential, I said it before and I’m saying it now. It deserved the hype it had a few months ago, but it failed to latch onto that hype and blow itself out of the water like it could have. They have tried to capitalize on it’s media buzz with things like the Quora button, but obviously it never panned out.

I believe Quora will be around for awhile, but it needs a few things: a site redesign focusing on what the user came to the site for (to find answers to questions, and to ask questions), a more organized homepage that is Quora’s own and not a copy of Twitter, and a remodeled ranking system. Do that and Quora should be able to succeed and be more attractive to new users.

What do you think? Does Quora have what it takes to become a major player in the Q&A market, or are they hanging on the edge of a cliff barely holding on?

The Science of Timing

The slides from the Science of Timing Webinar by Dan Zarrella, hosted on Hubspot:

The Science of Timing http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=scienceoftiming-110329132704-phpapp01&stripped_title=the-science-of-timing&userName=HubSpot

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing

Facebook Should Follow Twitter

Twitter's new user homepage

Earlier today Twitter announced that they were on the verge of releasing an all new Twitter experience. If you’d like to read more about it go to Twitter’s homepage . In a nutshell this overhaul brings in features like tabbed browsing (through the feed, mentions, retweets, etc), videos and pictures directly in your feed, mini profiles, and more. It is a completely new way to Tweet, Follow, and is an incredible update that I predict, and in agreement with Mashable’s recent post on the subject, will make the website insanely more popular and easily monetized for businesses.

This is how you will view Twitter vids and pics in the feed...live.

That’s not what this post is about. This post is about how Facebook should “follow” (get it?) in Twitter’s footsteps about how to update/change a website layout, and functionality. Facebook has angered plenty of people with their somewhat frequent home page, profile, and news feed changes over the years…I myself have been very angry about this since Facebook hasn’t even perfected basic features on their site such as Search and Chat. Why update things without warning, angering your users (aka your monetary value), without fixing the things that actually need fixing?

Twitter is doing something extraordinary when you compare the process to Facebook’s lack of notifications, customer service habits, and apparent lack of hearing when it comes to user feedback. Twitter is slowly rolling out the new website in a preview mode that will allow all users to switch back and forth between the old and new sites at will. This will allow users to get accustomed to the features and layout of the new site at their own pace. Eventually everyone will only have access to the new site…but at least Twitter is doing what Facebook has never done, letting users know what’s happening well before it happens. Maybe they learned a few things from Facebook’s mistakes as well. It always sucks being the big man on campus when trying new things doesn’t it FB?