Klout. Why It’s not a Metric for Influence.

Dezember 20th, 2011 • 2 comments CRM, Tools
Tags: Analytics, Influence, Klout, Metrics, Social Infliuence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Truth

My colleague Heather – Strategy Director at StrawberryFrog here in Amsterdam – has posted quite an interesting article on her personal Quest for Klout.

This is the story:

A little over a week ago, a comment was made by a client responsible for social media that they would expect someone offering advice on social media to have a higher Klout score than themselves. I wasn’t in the meeting, but one of our art directors made the comment “Wait until you meet our head of planning. She’ll give you a run for your money.”

When my colleagues return and tell me about the meeting we go online and compare Klout scores. Mine is 40. The client’s is 51. I’ve never paid any attention to Klout before this but they insisted I try to do so and get mine up. So I connect my Facebook account. Then Foursquare, Instagram, Google+ that I never use, and LinkedIn (that ought to take care of this competition). And then I simply put attention into all of these networks. After 24 hours my score had gone up 6 points. By the end of the week I was at 53 and it seems to have leveled off there. But that’s still 2 points higher than the client’s.

We had a bit of a conversation about Heather’s challenge with her client. Of course it was just a game but an interesting one as the client really defined Klout as a crucial metric that really describes Influence.

The problem? If you are all up for lifting your Klout score all you have to do is to basically connect every social profile you have and get retweeted constantly. In the end you get something like this (which basically says nothing but…wait…MY KLOUT SCORE IS HIGHER HEATHER!!!! ):

Klout does not get tired to pretend it is the standard when it comes to influence metrics in the social web. It’s true: if it comes to asking how to measure influence somebody will mention Klout pretty quickly. Or in other words, I think Klout did a great job in making people believe they can measure influence. I think they can’t. My reason? Klout does not measure influence. It measures blah blah.

Angela Merkel’s Klout Score is only one point higher than my own. British Prime Minister David Cameron is even less influential than I am. And do you think this comparison makes sense? No, I don’t think so either. Because we all know Klout does not work that way.

My problem with Klout is simple: Klout defines itself as the ‘Standard for Influence‘. Sometimes – in more humble moments – as the “standard for Online and Internet Influence”. As a Strategist interacting with marketing clients (such as Heather does) this is just fine print when it comes to explaining if we are able to measure success.

“It’s simple, isn’t it?”, Klout is the metric for influence. And even though we all know that real influence cannot be split into an online influence and a real world influence…and even though we all know that unless I become German Chancelor or British Prime Minister I will never be as influential as two Politicians mentioned above…and even though I know that if I go on vacations tomorrow without tweeting for two weeks my Klout score will half: we still seem to accept it as a metric for influence.

Klout is not a metric for influence. It is something like a counter that tells the world how many e-mails I sent or how many telephone calls I answered yesterday. Oh…of course it turns that into a nice info visual and awards me a ridiculous set of badges (I am a “Klout OG”).

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Telekom. Witness my Personal Shitstorm Live.

Juli 29th, 2010 • 10 comments Brands, CRM
Tags: Brands, Mobile, Service, Telekom, TMobile, Truth, Twitter, Underway, World

This morning I checked my German bank account and found out that 1,400 Euro were missing. The reason? My former telecom provider Telekom had withdrawn the money. I had terminated my iPhone contract months ago. So why did they withdraw so much money?

In Germany you usually have two year mobile contracts.

• If you cancel your contract prior to this two year period, your telecom provider is nice to you, offers new handsets, special conditions etc. to make you return to him
• If you forget to terminate the contract it is automatically prolonged for another year without a real option for you to get out

Sounds bizarre? Yes, absolutely. Actually we all know that keeping a pleased client is much cheaper than acquiring (or reacquiring) a new one – but telecom providers in Germany don’t seem to think that far.

Back to the 1,400 EUR. Where were they? In April 2010 I found out that I am moving to Amsterdam to start a new job. I immediately withdrew from my iPhone contract which was still in effect by September 2010. In other words – I had to pay at least 4-5 more months.

Later I realized, there is  a way out of this little problem. Simply because I moved abroad – Germany’s Telekom could not offer their services in the Netherlands. A German law gave me the right to instantly terminate the agreement  if this is the case. So, in June (while already being in Amsterdam) I sent them another letter, withdrawing from my German mobile contract with instant effect.

What I did not know was – by withdrawing for the second time my first contract termination was considered as inoperative. The result…

• Telekom disconnected me instantly
• But (as I withdrew ‘too late’) they prolonged my existing contract for one more year and
• Made me pay for this prolongation for the whole prolonged year = 1,400 Euros

Very twisted ‘reality’. Of course I instantly screamed at a poor guy from customer service who promised me to solve the problem asap. And as usual, nothing happened. I called up my bank and got the money returned…but of course the problem with Telekom was not yet solved.

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Social CRM. Ready for action?

Oktober 11th, 2009 • 17 comments Business, CRM, Strategy
Tags: Business, CRM, Future, Prediction, Social Business Design, Social CRM, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Tools, World

While we are talking way too much about real vs. not so real Social Media Experts, definitely too few people debate about what social might contribute to the value of business-client-relationship. I believe the question how CRM will evolve is absolutely crucial for what lies ahead in social. While we have to answer questions about Social ROI (which does not always make sense), all too often we really seem to care too little about customer relationship in a social era. In this post I would like to give a very brief introduction on the topic and discuss the question whether traditional CRM decentralizes itself or if we can integrate Social CRM in traditional tools.

What is Social CRM?
Social CRM is a term which evolved over the last couple of years as extension to the classic understanding of the different forms of traditional CRM. While CRM describes an “information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized and efficient manner” (via Marios Alexandrou), Social CRM can be seen as the next step in a world which is more and more decentralized.

According to CRM maven Paul Greenberg Social CRM (SCRM) is:

CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.

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