Klout 2.0|The"fall out" and working through the kinks; or not!

OMG the “Twitterverse” has been abuzz with the recent changes that “Klout” has made to their algorithms, the social media world is on fire!

It’s amazing to me how many “Social Media Experts” who previously touted “Klout” as “The Social Media influence tool” to use, are now willing to jump ship and look for some “Kred”ential’s” (not that Kred doesn’t seem to be on top of their game or anything). But frankly I just don’t get it! If you ask me it’s quite laughable at the amount of bruised Klout ego’s out there! I mean really a few short weeks ago many of the so called “Social Media Experts”, (you know who they are!) couldn’t say enough good things about “Klout” and “Klout Perks”! If these so called “Social Media Experts”, were truly on top of their game there would have been little to no changes in their scores when the “Klout Analyst’s”, finally figured out what truly makes up Social Influence.

To me “Klout” was initially a simple measurement of your Twitter presence; however they saw an opportunity to turn the service into a viable business by adding on the measurement of facebook reach and influence, for businesses. As we have entered Social Media 3.0, the expectation is that people now have a way to equate return of engagement to return on investment.

Overtime and with the help of certain “Brands”, Klout now has a growing structure for which to begin measuring social influence. This is important in that so many of our “Social Media Experts”, previously were gaming “Klout” by this I mean they were simply obtaining followers and dousing then with information, not actually engaging them. So here we are today with tons of “Social Media Experts”, with bruised egos because they have been found out and must now start re-building their Social Influence. Perhaps this time they will be better at creatively engaging and communicating with at least 10% of those 9,999 followers on a weekly basis!

Since influence is relative why all the so called “Social Media Experts” are upset that their “Rock star” scores have dropped from 80 to 46? Why are they not upset with the fact that it is took “Klout” so long to understand what Social Influence truly consists of?

My issues with “Klout” are not that they’ve changed the algorithms to what they actually should have been measuring but that they do not address the broken pieces of the system! Such as, how does one become influential of bars after one Facebook post and maybe three tweets, on the subject?! And not be influential in QR codes and they sit on a weekly chat regarding that subject and are constantly retweeted and even quoted in various blogs; on the matter! Not to mention, there aren’t any instructions on how to give +K to an influencer on a subject we feel they are an influencer of? These are the issues we want answers to!

I digress; the good folks at “Klout” were not able to respond back to me in a timely fashion so I had to push forward without a response from them. And while my relationship with “Klout” has been bittersweet I would love to see them re-brand and move forward; as I have invested so much time building my “Social Influence” and “Klout”. However with these unanswered questions I find myself wanting to join in on the #OccupyKlout movement or my favorite “Who needs “Klout” when they have Social Media “Kred”!

For more information on Social Media “Kred” go to www.kred.ly

To read more about measuring your Social Media Influence read this great article on "Social Media Examiner" by Phil Mershon, "6 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results".

Let’s get Mocial!

I know some of you are wondering what the heck is “Mocial”; well it’s the new buzzword for the summer of 2011!
Mocial(Mo~shul) defined as to use a social networking engine (i.e. Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter etc.) through any mobile device to seek companionship, check in with others and/or receive deals/discounts from businesses while "on the go".
Basically it’s mobile + social and why does “Mocial” matter to you and your businesses marketing plan---because the numbers don’t lie!

Let’s take a look shall we? According to Wikipedia, 96% of the US population has a cell phone. Various surveys have suggested that 50% of those people have their phones within reach 80% of waking hours! Not to mention that 40% of facebook users are accessing the site from their mobile and Foursquare has increased its membership from 500,000 users 9 months ago to 5 million! So like I said the numbers don’t lie!
Beginning July 18th through the 22nd the Social Mobile Media Marketing Diva will be coaching you on the dynamics of “Mocial Marketing” and what constitutes an excellent Mocial Marketing campaign. Not only will you be learning about the different tools that can be used to “Go Mocial” but you’ll have an opportunity to get familiar with some of the free tools available to use by taking part in Mocial challenges along the way and maybe even winning a few cool prizes!
 Learn how to use qr codes, twitter, youtube & more to create an interactive and engaging Mocial marketing campaign.
 It’s free & fun.
Get started now! Psst be sure to tell a friend!
For 2 extra points text message “Diva” to 96362 to opt-in to receive VIP marketing tips from the SocialMMMDiva.
Rules:
The first person to reach 15 points wins. Contestants must be a resident of the Continental U.S. (50 states) and does not have a .mobi website or a multi-channel engagement platform system.
Prizes:
All challenge participants will receive $20 off a .mobi website with free domain name registration ($175 value and excludes monthly service fee of $25).
Second place winner gets a 10 day trial from “Hit My Line’s” multi-channel engagement platform! That’s right set up your own opt-in text message campaign and post to twitter & Facebook from Hit My Line’s campaign manager.
The Grand Prize winner will receive a 30 day trial .mobi website with free domain name registration and “Hit My Line’s” multi-channel engagement platform for 30 days (valued at $300 and excludes any associated monthly service fees).

Channel surfing

So today Saphire [my car] has decided that she doesn't want to go outside, so I have to stay home too. Time to channel surf!
As I flip through the channels I see an Oscar Meyer commercial where the husband is soo ignoring his wife @d not going to the kitchen to get his lunch UNTIL drum roll she Texts him a picture of his lunch!  Swoosh I channel changes to my favorite shopping chanel and as the hostess is teling me about a beautiful morganite set I rose and white gold ring she says if you downloaded are app "lucky" you! You can oder and secure your purchase withouut holding on the phome as these are selling like hotcakes! Swoosh channel lands on game tv new show on where the host is telling how us folks at home can play along using the app or by sending a text!
So as I type this out on my Samsung Epic keyboard, I am thinking how did we ever watch tv without my mobile! And my next thought was how can any business owner do business without multi channel social engagement anymore?!