One of the biggest challenges facing my clients and many business owners today is how to find communities and individuals who are influential online. A variety of tools such as Klout, Kred and PeerIndex has sprung up in the past several years.
This is increasingly important because one individual can have a major impact not only on a companies reputation, but also on their bottom line as Dave Carroll did on United Airlines.
The Rise of Social Scoring
The primary goal of these tools is to provide a number which “scores” or “ranks” the ability of each individual and business to influence others online. This is somewhat similar to the Nielsen ratings. While each tool has a different method for scoring and different scoring scales, the general rule is the higher one’s number, the more influence they have on a particular topic. So, in theory, if you find indivduals or communities
Social Bro Teams Up with Kred
I’ll be writing more shortly on how all this actually works and what it means to all of us, but in the short-term one of my favorite Twitter tools, SocialBro, just announced a partnership with Kred.
“SocialBroallows you to manage and analyze your Twitter community with Kred, a measurement of social influence in online communities connected by interests. Kred provides reliable and accurate information about how influential your contacts are. With this integration you can discover influencersvery easily and focus on engaging with those you consider worthwhile.”
Initial/Quick Thoughts
There is no magic bullet for finding community online, but learning the basics of social scoring online can be very valuable to find communities and individuals to listen to and to connect with online. I’m a big Twitter fan so having Social Bro and Kred appears to a valuable addition. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Final Thoughts for Now
There’s much more to finding influencers than just looking at Klout scores. And, not everyone agrees to the validity of the numbers. But there is no doubt they are having an impact on marketing and advertising today.
PS. If you want a GREAT overview of how social scoring works and why you should be paying attention to it, make sure to check out my friend Mark Schaefer’s book “Return on Influence“.
