Klout Doesn’t Really Measure Influence [STUDY]

A new study about digital influence says Klout and other social media measurement tools don’t really define how users influence their networks.

All too commonly, sites like Klout and PeerIndex claim to measure influence — and maybe they do measure influence. But what does digital influence really mean?

Brian Solis, author of The Altimeter Group report, says social websites that rank users’ social media influence don’t measure influence like they claim to do. Rather, Solis says a user’s social media score measures the “capacity to influence.”

“Scores can be measures of social capital, but not true influence,” he said.

Solis came up with his own definition of digital influence: “the ability to cause effect, change behavior, and drive measurable outcomes online.” Solis conducted qualitative research by interviewing vendors, conducting software demos, and reviewing brands with piloted digital influence programs.

He also says brands don’t really understand influence.

“While these tools use sophisticated algorithms to calculate a corresponding number, they do not take into account all of the complexities of influence and the nature of relationships between people in social networks,” Solis says. “As a result, brands are potentially misallocating precious resources based on the lack of understanding of what influence is and the role influencers play within customer markets.”

Klout said it was well aware of Solis’s report before it was published — the company even had an advanced copy. But Lynn Fox, Klout’s spokeswoman, would not say whether Klout agreed or disagreed with the report.

“The report reinforces that we came in early on and we are furthest along in the process of measuring influence in this market,” Fox said.

How Klout Found Success by Focusing on Users

The 33-page report outlines the three pillars of influence, which is the ways brands become influencers, Solis said. The pillars — reach, resonance and relevance — determine how a brand or person can cause change or effect in their social network. A social media score alone does not mean a brand is an influencer, he said.

“The Pillars of Influence contribute to social capital, which indicates the likelihood to influence behavior, but a “score” does not predict the resulting actions or outcomes,” Solis said. “A score of 74 only represents the capacity to influence, but other variable come into play as defined by the Pillars of Influence.”

Azeem Azhar, the CEO of UK-based social media influence ranking site of PeerIndex, said the study is a great conversation driver, but the conclusion of the study doesn’t mean much. Social media rating sites are all in the realm of influence and the rankings branded as measured influence aren’t misleading users, Azhar said.

“We are in a semantic battle here rather than a practical battle,” Azhar said. “I don’t think there’s much difference between the capacity to influence and influence itself.”

He illustrated this with an anecdote about martinis. If a person drank martinis the past 10 Friday nights, it’s likely the person will drink a martini the next Friday night, he said.

“Or we can say it’s likely you have the capacity to drink a martini,” Azhar said. “I don’t see a difference.”

Klout openly says on the site has an algorithm to measure influence. The algorithm has come under scrutiny in the past, but Klout says its scientists and engineers work to make sure your influence score is accurate.

“Influence in general is a challenge to define, but the point is that the data exists and influence is the ability to drive action,” she said. “Our focus right now is continuing to unlock influence for consumers.”

Does this report uncover the limitations of a social media score, or is this a semantic battle? Are the three social media pillars needed to be a digital influencer? Tell us in the comments.

Photo courtesy of iPhoto, AlijaAlija

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Did Rick Santorum Really Fix His ‘Google Problem’?

Has Rick Santorum finally fixed his “Google problem”, as the candidate claims? Sort of.

The campaign announced its triumph over a satirical site designed to redefine the candidate’s last name during a Friday morning breakfast at Google’s Washington, D.C. office, according to The Daily Caller.

For years, searches for “Santorum” on Google and other engines offered SpreadingSantorum.com as the top result. That site suggests an off-color redefinition for “Santorum” and was designed by Dan Savage, a writer and gay rights advocate, in response to Santorum’s position on same-sex marriage.

Santorum’s presidential campaign’s website was unable to dethrone the satirical site — until now. According to the Santorum campaign, Google searches for “Santorum” now deliver websites “relevant to Rick’s campaign.”

So has Santorum beaten Savage at last? To find out, Mashable performed a “clean” Google search — first logging out of all accounts and clearing cookies, then searching.

Our results: Santorum campaign does indeed rank higher than the satirical “SpreadingSantorum.com,” the long-time nemesis of the candidate’s digital team. But a Wikipedia entry about the satirical site still claims the top spot — so it’s not a total victory for Team Santorum.

Peter Pasi, one of the candidate’s digital consultants, credited Santorum’s bid for the White House as the cause of their victory as traffic from major news websites brought the official campaign site to the top of Google.

“We’re obviously a major player now,” Pasi told The Daily Caller.

Santorum has tried multiple times to petition Google to change the search results and accused Google of having a “political agenda.” However, Google wouldn’t budge because Savage’s site didn’t break the “rules” of search. Instead, it got traffic the old-fashioned way: viral buzz and search engine optimization, or SEO. All those eyeballs on the site drove it above Santorum’s website back while he was still a senator.

Pasi says Savage’s site was able to do so well because the writer “had a huge platform through his columns to say go ahead and search for this, link to this,” while Santorum’s own site “wasn’t active.”

SEE ALSO: Dear Rick Santorum: 6 Ways to Fix Your Google Problem

Do you think Santorum has defeated his “Google problem” for good? Sound off in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Flickr, Gage Skidmore

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Twitter Does Not Actually Predict Box Office Sales [STUDY]

Twitter has developed the reputation of being able to predict the future — from box office sales to presidential primary results and even the stock market. But according to researchers at Princeton University, Twitter might not be able to foretell how well films will perform after all.

A new report called “Why Watching Movie Tweets Won’t Tell the Whole Story” found that monitoring tweets related to movies is not a reliable source for what could actually happen at the box office.

The news comes as analysts predict a record-breaking opening weekend for the movie The Hunger Games, based on active chatter about the book-to-film trilogy.

“We found that data from Twitter — while valuable for the unprecedented access it provides into the public psyche — is not necessarily representative of the larger online population, as seen from the results of our studies on ratings computed from movie tweets compared to International Movie Database (IMDB) and Rotten Tomatoes ratings,” study co-author and professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University Mung Chiang told Mashable.

SEE ALSO: Social Media Supports ‘Hunger Games’ More Than ‘Potter,’ Less Than ‘Twilight’ [CHARTS]

Chiang, along with two postdoctoral research associates Soumya Sen and Felix Wong, analyzed about 10 million user tweets with movie keywords from Twitter between February and March 2012 (around Oscar season) and data using machine learning techniques to label tweets based on their temporal context (before, during and after watching a movie) and opinion (positive or negative reviews).

“Twitter users tend to be much more positive in their reviews and comments for films overall,” Chiang said. “But they are less positive than IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes reviews for Oscar ‘Best film’ nominated movies.”

In addition to sentiment analysis, it looked at how well certain films performed at the box office via data on IMDB.

“We found that if a movie received high ratings in IMDB — by over 70% approval — and a lot of buzz on Twitter, then it usually does well at the box-office in the long run,” Sen added. “But otherwise, predicting box-office success is difficult. Movies with a lot of hype on Twitter and low IMDB ratings can be successful or unsuccessful at the box-office. It’s harder to predict.”

Overall, the study found no clear evidence that shows a direct link between Twitter hype, ratings and box office sales.

“The most surprising finding was that Twitter data may not be representative enough of the total population, so it is somewhat risky to use the site for forecasting,” Sen said. “More sophisticated techniques may be needed to understand the applicability of such data sets, such as the metrics we developed to understand the extent of the difference between Twitter users and other online rating side users.”

Do you think Twitter can predict big trends? Let us know in the comments.

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Have You Blown Off Google’s New Privacy Policy?

As some of you already know, I was planning to blog about my site’s new theme and why I updated it, but I felt this topic was more important.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Google’s new privacy policy that will go into effect March 1, 2012.

There’s been a lot of chatter about this on the Web over the past three weeks, so I’ve been sitting back absorbing all the info.

Like many people, you may have ignored the updated policy notice and/or clicked “Dismiss” because who wants to read all that fine print, right?

Besides, you aren’t doing anything illegal or unethical online, so what’s the big deal? They’re just creating one policy that covers all their services.  What’s the harm?

But, that’s just it.

Google knows you won’t read it clearly, and even if you do, you’ll probably get tripped up on the legal speak (blah, blah, blah…. Neeeext!)

In a recent YouTube video, Google described the updated policy as one beautifully, simple experience.  The presentation was quite rosey and appeared as if Google is doing us all a great service as they simplify their privacy policy.

So what does it all mean?

Starting on March 1st, when you use any of Google’s services (Calendar, Gmail, Search, Groups, etc.) they will collect and store that information to serve you with better advertising, search results, etc.

Doesn’t sound like a huge deal, right? Isn’t that how Google has been operating anyway?

For things like search and web browsing, yes, that is how it works today.  But on March 1st, that policy allows Google to collect and combine the data across all 60 Google services to better target ads and “improve your experience.”

The problem is not so much about Google wanting to personalize your experience.  The bigger problem is the privacy issue should hackers or the wrong people get a hold of this information.

Let’s say you’re doing a research paper on fighting child pornography and you do a Google search to collect some information.  Maybe you even watch a few YouTube videos about people speaking out against it and send a couple of emails on the subject.

Now there is an online paper trail of you performing searches, watching videos and sending emails on child pornography that could be used against you should that data get into the wrong hands.

Now I realize this is a very extreme example, but I’m just providing one of the worst case scenarios for illustration purposes.

Yes, you actually can opt out and it’s very easy to do.  Just log out of Google.

Problem solved, right?

For some maybe, but not for those who rely on a variety of Google services.  Logging out is just not an option for many people.

That’s what bugs me the most.  You either opt out and stop using all of Google’s services, or login and be forced to share everything you do. There’s no way to use their services and opt out.

Of course, the reason Google did not give us that option is because they know everyone would do just that — thus defeating the whole purpose and agenda of the new policy.

This post is not about trying to turn you away from Google.  I’m simply educating you on what the new policy means since you may have missed the fine print.

You have the right to be properly informed and make decisions that are appropriate for yourself and your business.

Some people have dropped Google’s products altogether, while others have decided to ride with the new policy changes.

Nevertheless, I feel a sense of responsibility to educate since so many of you use multiple Google products these days.  Even if you’re OK with the new policy and plan to do nothing, you should at least understand and be aware of it.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a lawsuit against the FTC last Wednesday stating that Google’s new policy is a “clear violation.” However, Google insists they are not violating their user’s privacy and does not intend to change how personal information is shared outside of Google.  You can read more here.

March 1st is fast approaching, so please share this with your followers and make sure they know what they are “accepting” when the new policy takes effect.

And if you agree that Google should allow you to opt out of their services upon logging in, please sign this petition. I did.

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So will this new policy change how you use Google and their services?  Are people blowing this all out of proportion? Please share your thoughts.

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A Nifty Online Tool That Will Improve Your Writing

Have you ever written an article and wished you could find a better way to phrase something?

Do you sometimes repeat the same words in your copy over and over again?

I have these issues all the time and often find myself browsing an online thesaurus for word inspiration.

Well, thanks to a BlogCastFM Interview with Laura Belgray, I now have a more useful tool in my arsenal.

It’s called OneLook – a free online dictionary that lets you perform a variety of different wildcard searches to find related words, concepts and phrases.

For example, let’s say you want to write an alliteration, and you need three words that start with the letter g that mean “happy.”

Simply type the query, g*:happy and the site will churn out the following results…

You can also seek out related phrases that begin with/contain certain words or match a given concept.

If you enter **happiness** OneLook will reveal phrases that contain the word happiness.

Pretty cool, huh?  I could play with this tool all day!

So the next time you find yourself stumped when you’re writing, or you’d like to unearth a more interesting way to phrase something, fire up OneLook.

It’s like a dictionary on steroids!

And while you’re at it, you might as well tune into the BlogCastFM podcast.  It’s chock full of actionable, noteworthy copywriting tips from Laura.  I really enjoyed it.

Are there any tools you use to help enhance your writing?  Do share!

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5 Powerful Ways To Open Your Next Blog Post …or Fix Your Old Ones

Pop Quiz: How many blogs are there on the internet?

a. 50 million
b. 160 million
c. a Gazillion

If you said C, you’re wrong. But don’t worry, I thought it was C, too

The actual number is unknown but back in 2010, there was an estimated 160 million blogs online.

So, if you said B, pat yourself on the back (cuz I can’t do it from here).

Take a second right now and think about what I just did. How did I get you to read past the first sentence?

That’s what this post is all about and today you’re going to learn 5 ways to open your blog posts, or fix your old posts openings and get people to read.

Just like first impressions matter in life, the first sentence of your articles are just as important. Your readers use them to determine whether the post is worth their time.

After reading this you’ll be able to literally “copy & paste” these techniques on your own posts – and hopefully see better results. Here are the 5 ways you can open your articles…. with examples.

This is by far the simplest of them all and I use it on most of my blog posts. You can’t go a day without seeing this opening, and for good reason – because it works.

Not only does it help you get started writing, it also grabs your reader’s attention which entices them to continue reading your article. Here’s an example of this opening at work:

Starting with a quote might seem like something you would do on a high school grade essay, but they’re very useful when opening blog posts, too. Quotes are great because they made “quotes” for a reason.

Maybe they inspired someone or made them think differently about a particular topic.

Whatever the reason, you should use them in your openings because they will have the same effect on your readers. If it’s a really good quote, they’ll want to know who said it, and hopefully why you’re quoting them.

I love stories. We all do. That’s what we do all day long. When your best friend asks you how your day was, you don’t just say fine and keep it moving.

You tell them about that dude that cut you off while you were driving. Then you tell them how the cops pulled you over for speeding when you were just trying to catch up to the guy that cut you off, to do it back to him.

We tell stories.  That’s what we do, and they’re another great way to start your articles. They get your readers hooked and that’s exactly what we want. Here’s a quick example of storytelling at work:

The shock and awe approach. Works like magic. You can start your blog posts by disagreeing with what is commonly accepted as the norm. This builds an instant sense of curiosity and bring up questions that your readers need answered.

Use this opening with caution. You don’t want to shock your audience with a strong statement, or build a ton of curiosity and not back it up. Your content needs to clearly explain your point of view.

Short. Sweet. To the point. There’s nothing sexy about this blog opening, but it works just as well as the others. I don’t use this one as much as I should, but it does make starting blog posts a lot easier.

Simply think about the one thing you want your readers to get out of your article and just say it. Tell them from the very beginning and I bet they’ll be more interested in finding out more. Here’s how I used this opener:

How do you open your blog posts? Please share some tips with us in the comments.

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The Absolute Worst Advice I’ve Ever Received Online

Affiliate Marketers Shouldn’t Create Their Own Products!

Yep, that’s what someone told me on YouTube when I asked my subscribers what kind of book they would like me to write.

My critic went on to say that I should not sell my own products because I already offer so much free advice.  What could I possibly put in a book that would be worth anyone’s money?

He believes affiliate marketers should stick to selling other people’s “stuff” instead of trying to create their own products.

I have to say.  That was probably one of the worst pieces of advice I’ve received in my 14 years of affiliate marketing.

If you want long-term success online, your ultimate goal should be to sell your own product(s).

From our exchange, I could tell he assumed I was just going to regurgitate everything on my site, throw it into a book and slap a price tag on it.  But what’s so ironic about that is many people suggested I do just that!

Once again, I learned that oh-so-valuable lesson I wrote about last week…

YOU CAN’T PLEASE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME.

Having said that, I understood his concern.  It was never my goal to just paraphrase my site and put it into a book.  I knew I had a lot of information and lessons tucked away that could be packaged up and presented.

So yes, there were a few naysayers who spoke out against product creation. However, the overwhelming majority requested a book on niche websites/affiliate marketing, and those are the people I listened to.

This was two years ago, but thanks to a very debilitating RSI (typing) injury I went through in 2009 and 2010, I was never able to start the book.  Writing for long periods of time was just too painful and I had other priorities that kept getting in the way.

I was also having trouble with the direction of the book, so I chalked it up to bad timing and decided to table the project until I was ready to dedicate my time to it.

Nevertheless, that is all behind me now, and I have completed Niche Website Success!  It’s a very detailed, practical guide for creating a niche website and includes numerous strategies I’ve used over the years for building websites, AdSense, affiliate marketing, video and more.

And because I don’t want you spending your hard-earned money on something you don’t need, you can download the table of contents.  Check it out and browse the chapter info.

The news just keeps getting sweeter!  If you have an audience that would benefit from Niche Website Success, I am offering a whopping 75% commission.  All you have to do is sign up with Clickbank (free) and grab the code to promote it on your website!  Click here for details.

Thanks for all the amazing feedback and testimonials you’ve sent me thus far.  I know it took forever to get this puppy out, but hopefully you’ll find it worth the wait.

Check out Niche Website Success!

The issue with launching products when you’ve been known to give away so much for free is people often worry you are going to start selling out or pitching your product down their throats every chance you get.

Let’s hope you know me better than that.  I will continue to provide free resources, advice, tutorials, etc. as always.

I am simply diversifying my income as often suggested here on my blog.  Hopefully you are doing the same.

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