What is Klout anyway?

Klout is an online tool that measures the social influence of a person or brand across a number of social networks including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare and more recently, YouTube which was added in August and Google+, which was added last month.

Based on your ability to drive action, Klout scores you between 1 and 100 (with 100 being the most influential). It uses data from the range of social networks to measure your true reach (how many people you influence), amplification (how much you influence them e.g. when people respond to your messages and share it) and your network impact (the influence of your network). In short, it measures whether people trust and like you enough to respond to the things you talk about.

Should you care about your Klout score?

Klout has always been something I’ve looked at and have had fun with whilst comparing scores with different people in the office on a personal level, but nothing more. However, while managing our client’s social media accounts and recording who is following them, I’ve taken their Klout score into consideration. The bottom line of Klout is that it gives me a good indication of how our social media efforts are working out.

It also helps me discover who the big players in our client’s industry are, follow and engage with them and have them follow us back.

But it should be taken into consideration that it shouldn’t be used as the only tool to decide who to follow as we do come across people who seem to have a very high Klout score – but only post spam or advertising, so we know that Klout can be gamed (as with many other things on the internet) and Klout can’t measure every type of influence, so it’s not the be all and end all and, perhaps, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Other benefits of Klout?

After Klout took to the spotlight more recently, I discovered ‘Klout Perks’ which are used primarily by US brands who offer exclusive products or experiences that you can earn based on your influence. Previous examples were gift cards from various online retailers, tickets to events and hotel discounts.

But when accessing these perks, I got excited to see that a perk was available to me – a free sample of hair gel from Axe. However, the tagline on the ad was ‘Finally… a strong hold that she’ll want to touch’… hang on a second… then I read the spiel “When it comes to a guy’s hair, male and female satisfaction are often at odds…” I am definitely a girl, and I thought that Klout would be able to find this info using Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn’s API.

Anyway, I ignored this and tried to claim it anyway, but a message popped up saying “This perk is for US residents only” which is a fail, considering that information is on my Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn and Klout has access to the API’s for these social networking sites.

A bit of an anti-climax and obvious room for improvement from Klout, but I am hoping that UK companies will jump on the Klout bandwagon soon.

At the moment I have a Klout score of 51 (just over half way there to getting the perfect score of 100 like @JustinBieber), and for an unknown reason Klout tells me I’m influential about hotels and the Maldives (might have tweeted that I’m going on holiday there in the past), so I have my fingers crossed that a company will give me a free holiday one day.

At the moment, Klout is fun and can be useful, but we don’t need to become slaves to this measurement tool yet. Only time will tell whether Klout will be 100% reliable, we will just have to wait and see!

Even though Google have denied that they are in direct competition with Facebook, everyone who has both these social networking accounts can see how similar they are to each other and how there’s always going to be some rivalry (let’s not forget Facebook’s association with Bing instead of Google).

Last week, Mashable ran a poll and just fewer than 35% of the 5,346 people who voted said that they hated the new Facebook! People also vented their anger and confusion using Twitter which then saw #NewFacebook trending.

However, we all know, from past Facebook changes that users will moan about the updates for a little while but then just accept the new changes and forget all about the old Facebook, allowing the social networking site to retain its users and continue growing.

Facebook has now reached over 800 million users whilst Google+ is also growing at a very quick rate, and has over 43 million users. Although the number is not as impressive as Facebook’s numbers just yet, we have to remember that Google+ is only 3 months old and has only this week become available to all people, rather than invite only.

With Google+ now open to the public, we are wondering if Google’s real time search would make a comeback after Twitter and Google failed to agree on terms so that Google could keep Twitter’s real time tweets in their results.

However, it seems that they are still at loggerheads with each other rather than working together. Bing renewed their contract with Twitter earlier this month to have real time results in their search engine, but who actually chooses Bing over Google when it’s not their default browser setting?

I have to admit that I’m one of the people that complained about the new Facebook changes and contributed to the discussion on Twitter, but still found myself using Facebook. Facebook is still the social network that most of my friends are using which makes using it much more interesting than Google+, where nothing is really going on in my circles yet. However, if I find that more people I know start using Google+ more I may get weaned off Facebook. It’s just what happened to my Myspace account, once everyone I cared about joined Facebook, my Myspace got deleted.

At the end of the day, people are going to choose and use a social networking site where they can actually be social with other people, rather than choose a networking site purely based on how great the user interface is.

We’re not sure if people are ready to ditch Facebook for Google+ just yet. Do you have a preferred social media account?

A couple of months ago you couldn’t move for posts about Google+, with everyone talking about its rivalry with Facebook, its sudden influx of 20 million users and hundreds of debates about how it was going to completely change the game! But now when I look around SEOMoz, Econsultancy, Search Engine Land and the rest I see barely a few mentions of this ‘revolutionary’ new social network.

To be fair, I am no better than the rest, when Google+ first came out I was straight on it and published 2 or 3 posts about how it could topple Facebook, change the way we connect online and add a huge new element to SEO, but now I am paying about as much attention to it as I am to AOL.

The fact of the matter is, so far we have seen little to no impact on SEO by Google+, and although it has 20 million+ users I haven’t seen a fresh update from any of my circles in weeks! Meanwhile, Facebook continues to roll out new features, such as the subscribe button, and both Facebook and Twitter are still much better places to interact with friends, fans and customers.

So where do we go from here?

A couple of months ago everyone was discussing how Google was becoming much more social and how we need to adapt to that and move away from traditional SEO tactics. However, in the last month there has been very little impact from Google+ and Google have not renewed their deal with Twitter, effectively losing some of their social element, rather than increasing it.

So should we just forget about Google+ and social networks altogether? Well no, social is obviously still very important for online marketing, with Twitter and Facebook being excellent mediums for creating brand awareness, customer interaction and content distribution, but I do think it is fair to say that the initial hype over Google+ was a bit much and that, although a move into social is good, abandoning traditional SEO tactics in favour of a social only approach might be a bit too presumptuous.

However, according to a study by a Pew Internet survey conducted in May 2011 and results released this week, the proportion of people in the USA using social networking services is 65%, whereas 92% of internet users send email and use search engines. These figures remind us that even though social media is important, we shouldn’t let social become too much of a distraction.

Compared to less than 5 years ago, when only around 20% of adult internet users in the USA were tweeting and liking, 65% is actually a good figure and a tremendous growth, which undoubtedly cannot be ignored. However, when it comes to established, continued usage, social media is still not yet up to the same level as email and search.

Usage of search and email is also astonishingly consistent across demographic categories. For example –
96% of those aged between 18-29 use search engines and 87% of those who are 65 and older use search engines too. 94% of internet users in the 18-29 category use email while 87% of those in the 65+ group also use email.

Usage is also consistent through socioeconomic categories as 90% of those earning $30,000 per annum use search engines and 98% of those earning $75,000+ per year also use search engines, which isn’t significantly higher.

Some people may think that email is dying, however we can see from the survey results this is not true. Many organisations are still undecided about social media and can see emails as a vital part of their business as they use it every day.

Even though there’s a buzz around social networking sites, mainly because they are seen as “the new kid on the block”, search and email should not be forgotten. At the moment search and email can be seen as currently the two most reliable digital marketing channels. Saying this, all three channels have unique attributes and if they are all integrated in a marketing campaign, this can lead to a successful campaign.

Since Google+ was launched two months ago, a staggering number of over twenty million users have set up an account; it took Facebook three years to gain the same number of users.

As Google+ pages for businesses aren’t available until the autumn, UTalkMarketing.com discusses what brands and businesses might want to get out of the social networking platform, once they’ve signed up.

One of the suggestions was having an online shopping experience on Google+. Facebook offers online shopping within Facebook pages, however businesses have struggled to measure how much of its new business can be attributed directly from consumer activity on the site. Matthew says “I would like to see the integration of [Google’s] shopping search results, so that businesses can have a direct point of sale on their Google+ profile and therefore accurately attribute sales from this medium”.

The article suggests that Google+ could challenge Facebook by touting itself as an effective new business tool.

You can read Matthew’s thoughts and the rest of the article on UTalkMarketing.com.

There has been so much written about social media lately, it is of little surprise this week that we again find ourselves discussing who’s shaking up the world of social networking. Week after week it feels like the three big players, Twitter, Facebook, and of course now, Google+, are trying to out-do one another. Each wants to reign supreme as the number one social network – especially when it comes to attracting business.

They are also, naturally, trying to expand and grow, and move with the times. So what are they all doing to woo business to interact with their platforms?

Google+ Business Pages

To begin with, let’s look at how Google+ has attracted millions of users, and is currently trialling its business pages. In its short life Google+ has already gained over 20 million users worldwide, and whilst businesses were told to stay away from it as a marketing platform, Google has been working hard to build a business friendly field whereby a company can host a business page in order to then generate further brand awareness and, of course further business. Business pages, such as the one Ford have been lucky enough to secure, are rumoured to have an impact on how well the brand will rank in search – something which will no doubt motivate many businesses to sign up when they are allowed.

“Facebook For Business”

Facebook last week announced the introduction of its “Facebook For Business” site, and, on the face of it, it seems to be a way by which they plan to maintain a presence and influence. This is, somewhat cleverly, aimed at smaller businesses rather than huge brands. The reason I believe this to be a clever move by Facebook is because smaller (especially local) businesses will be more willing to give it a go in order to see if it helps their business grow, whereas large brands may decide to disregard it in favour of more traditional goals such as mass reach and search rankings.

New Tweets

Twitter haven’t exactly been quiet either, recently announcing a tweak to their sponsored tweets to make them simultaneously more prominent for advertisers, but less intrusive to users. Being able to engage a visitor with advertising, without putting them off using the service, is a critical challenge for any social website.

In addition, the update Twitter has announced will put every Twitter user on the same platform, those that are still using an older interface will therefore be forced to upgrade. This can go one of two ways: either those forced to upgrade will dislike the very fact that they didn’t get a choice and thus switch off from Twitter, or they will prefer their new interface and their experience will be enriched.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the latest examples of how social networking has clearly become such a key component to modern marketing. Online social media is expected to continue booming for years to come, with some 52% of all internet users expected to have a regular social media presence by 2013. With the increased take-up, and increasing time being spent on social media, advertisers will play a key role in shaping which platforms thrive, and which ones fall away.

We are now seeing a much more socially interactive web experience, and this can most clearly be seen with the rise of social network buttons. You can now go onto a blog, news article or just any old web page and see a Like, Tweet, +1, LinkedIn Share, Tumblr, Delicious, Stumble Upon and maybe even a Digg button.

So which one do you choose? Do you +1 it, Tweet it or Like it? There are so many options and it would seem ridiculous to use all of them every time you wanted to promote a piece of content!

Which Button?
All of these sharing buttons have their uses and, although their designs and interactive actions are all similar, their purposes can vary greatly. Obviously, on the surface there is the basic element of user preference, with some people loving Facebook and not understanding Twitter etc, but the reasons for choosing one over the other run much deeper than this.

For example, we can predict that people interested in SEO will most likely be focused on the Google+1 and Tweet buttons. This is because we are already aware that Google works with Twitter data and uses it as part of their ranking algorithm and it would be highly unlikely for them to not use data from their own social network button as well, meaning the +1 and Tweet buttons would have the biggest impact on rankings of all the social network buttons.

However, people who have just found a piece of content they want to share with their friends might favour Facebook, whilst people who have found something relating to their job may want to use the LinkedIn button and share it with their colleagues and business connections.

Who will come out on top?
Well, as each one can be seen as holding a different purpose they may continue to all serve a function and continue to be used, although Google does have the advantage of being the only button that appears directly in search results.

However, one new element that has come into play that may affect the amount of clicks these buttons get is sites creating their own. Sites such as YouTube, Sky Sports and SEOMoz have their own online communities and their own like and dislike buttons that effect it, making them much more appropriate to the content they are on and a much more integrated element.

Buttons here to stay?
Whether you are a fan of the Facebook Like, the Google+1, the Tweet or YouTube’s own thumbs up and thumbs down, one thing is for sure, social sharing buttons are being used more and more and becoming a much more important aspect of search, social and the way we view the web.

So which is your favourite button? Why not tell us below or show us by clicking on one of the ones attached to this article.

Google investors will also be happy as so far, revenue for Google is estimated to be up by 28% compared to the prior year. Investors polled by Thomson Reuters already expect the search engine to report net revenue of £4 billion.

Here at Gravytrain we managed to get invites to Google+ this week and have been getting to grips with the new social network. Like everyone else in the digital marketing community, a few of us are excited about the new social network and see its strong potential to rival Facebook, while others see Google+ as no competition to the current social media giants.

However, the main feature that most Google+ users seem to like is its privacy settings, which shows that the way we use social media could be changing.

While other social networking sites such as Facebook have seen innovative advances and an increase in popularity around the world, it doesn’t reflect how we actually interact with other people in real life. In real life, we don’t tend to share personal thoughts or content with everyone that we know. We’ll usually share certain things with certain people.

As mentioned in a previous post about Google+, the social network allows us to have different ‘circles’ of people where we can share different content with each group, whilst keeping other information private. Some people will use different social networks to connect with certain people, for example, Linkedin for work, Facebook for friends and family and Twitter for a mix of both. With Google+ and circles, it brings all these different groups into a platform that we can manage in one place, without embarrassment or worry over who sees what!

Arguably, Facebook does allow us to create lists where we can group different people, but to be honest, they are quite fiddly, weren’t really promoted and not clearly visible. Google enables us to have a social network that we can control ourselves, restrict the content that we receive and share information with certain groups, mirroring our online behaviour to how we socialise in real life.

Analysts however, have suggested that Google+ still has a long way to go before it matches Facebook’s popularity. Facebook announced last week that it had over 750 million users and is looking to enable video chats through its joint venture with Skype, which sounds quite similar to one of Google+’s video chat features, “Hangouts”. However, it’s still early days for Google+ and only time will tell whether the project will be successful.

So far, the increased popularity of Google+ shows that they are doing something right; it demonstrates that Google is driving towards success within social networking. Google+ could potentially be something that catches on with individuals and become very powerful, which other social networks should keep in mind.

In the past, Google used Twitter for faster indexation of content, to power real time results and also for use in their ranking algorithm. It has been reported that Google removed real time results from Twitter and other websites such as their News and Facebook. However, Google plans to reinstate real time results using Google+.

Even though Google+ is different from Google+1, with each having their own unique functions – they do connect with each other. Users who have a Google+ account or a normal Google account will be able to click on the Google+1 button, which will essentially allow users to vote for their search results and see which websites other connections or friends have “+1ed”. Therefore, the result’s rankings will not only affect you, but also people that you are connected with through Google.

Some of Google+’s features

The main feature of Google+ is the Circles feature, which is similar to Facebook and Twitter Lists. Circles allow you to allocate contacts to Circles e.g. Family, Friends, Snowboarding Group, Acquaintances and whoever else you want in the Circle. You can then publish content to specific Circles or specific individuals, because as Google states, “not all relationships are created equal”.

At the moment, there seems to be more control over privacy on Google+ compared to Facebook. You can share photos with your family in one post, and then publish something publicly in the next post.

Hangout is another feature of Google+. It’s a group video chat feature where you can invite members of a certain group by sending them a notification. An additional feature of the new social networking site is Huddle, which is a mobile group chat service which could also become available from your mobile phone in the near future.

Sparks is an online sharing engine where you can create a topic of interest and share links with group friends who also have the same interests. E.g. you could share results of Snowboarding in France with your “powder chasing” friends.

Why Google+?

Some people may wonder why Google has bothered launching Google+. The reasons are because nowadays, search is about real-time information, people and the relevance of information to them, not just about pages.

Google has been an advocate for real time and social media for a while now, with Google Buzz, Google Places, Google Wave and not to mention the list of its acquisitions of social sites e.g. YouTube and Blogger.com.

The senior vice president who oversees Google’s social product, Vic Gundotra, said “It’s ‘project’ rather than a product because it’s an ongoing set of products and ‘Plus’ because it takes products from Google and makes them better”.

Google doesn’t see itself as a competitor to Facebook or Twitter, as they say that the way people connect online is limited – it’s just a new way to connect online with the people that matter to you.

What’s next?

For now, businesses and organisations have been warned to stay away from Google+. Christian Oestlien, advertising lead on the team behind Google+ explains that the social media site was designed for individuals in mind, “We’re working on building a optimised business experience for Google+ which will hopefully be rolled out later on this year. It will include the ability to connect to other parts of Google such as AdWords and other rich analytics”. However, their main focus at the moment is optimising the consumer experience for Google+.

In terms of SEO, social media won’t replace traditional SEO however, it will indeed help it. SEO practices including link building, content creation, keyword research and targeting will be the foundation for ranking success. Even though social media is gaining more importance and interest, using a combination of both technical SEO techniques and social media are the best steps towards success.

Sadly, we weren’t lucky enough to get our hands on an invite the first time round, but we are looking forward to when we are able to get onboard with the project.

Social Media is becoming increasingly important in all sectors, including finance, and can have a huge impact on customer relations, brand awareness and visibility online. However, as Kevin discussed in his presentation, it is not enough to just sign up to Facebook and Twitter, a Social Media campaign should have clear aims, sufficient time dedicated to it and the backing of everyone involved.

Kevin also discussed how although Social Media can be a fantastic way of reaching a wide audience and connecting with your customers online, it can also leave you open to public criticism from unhappy customers. Kevin therefore pointed out that if you are going to embark on a Social Media campaign it is vital to have someone managing the accounts and responding to activity within a set time.

If run correctly Social Media can vastly improve a company’s brand awareness, website traffic and offer up a fantastic way to interact with customers. However, if neglected or misaimed it can cause more damage than good. If you are thinking of embarking on a Social Media campaign for your business it is therefore imperative to have a clear plan, strategy and aim in mind.