Guest Posts

A Klout Upside the Head

This is a guest post by Bob LeDrew.

I?ve been an observer of things Klouty for a while now. But I?ve been darned if I could work up a lot of excitement over it, positive OR negative. Until now.

I got pointed to a post on the Klout blog today about their reworked formula. Since I haven?t any accounts linked to their service, I didn?t have much reason to care.

But then I began to read the comment thread, and I was transfixed. The first comment set the tone: ?My score went from 73 down to 53. 20 point drop. I’ve been working for months to increase my Klout score. Please fix this.?

Others quickly chimed in:

This is going to cost me big time.

Went from 71 to 56 here. Time to get back to work.

You are killing our blogs here!

This trashed a 6-month effort to get our organization to use Klout as a measure of social media marketing effectiveness.

If I was searching for a job in Social Media right now I’d be concerned.

Klout set itself up as an authoritative measure of influence, and many organizations have coupled economic functions and job-related selection to?your scoring system.?By making this change, you have negatively impacted the job market viability of many loyal supporters of Klout at a time the?job market is in free-fall.

I have been promoting Klout to clients as one of the various metrics to use in measuring the impact of social media campaigns. This change has already caused me to lose clients, and I have to start over using PeerIndex instead.

I am beyond irritated over my 10 point drop, plus demotion in title! I work in Social Media Marketing, this point drop will hurt me in gaining clients! What the hell?!?

Sadly, expecting prospective clients to know how to hire someone based on their future delivery of results is not realistic. A score like Klout gives busy people a simple litmus test in advance. It’s the same reason people eat at McDonalds or AppleBees; the food is crap compared to the independent restaurant across the street but at?McDonalds or AppleBees they know what they are going to get.

I was just presenting a lecture today on the value of social media?efforts using monitors such as Klout and PeerIndex as a benchmark of impact, influence and effectiveness. Only, when I set it up this morning, I was at a 58 but when I opened that page, I’m now?a 40. Not terribly helpful – the whole presentation went south.

I have been feverishly working at increasing the Klout score for my company, as it is part of my MBO’s. Now, with a sudden 12 point drop, it will reflect poorly (and?inaccurately) upon my efforts.

I have a feeling that Katie Paine hasn?t waited to find a grave, but is spinning in her office somewhere in New England.

So I checked with a couple of people I know and trust. Surely, I asked, businesses aren?t seriously considering Klout scores when choosing consultants or working on a measurement strategy for a communications initiative?

And my trusted friends told me that while they felt it ridiculous, businesses were using Klout numbers as part of the decision-making process on who is most influential and that there are instances where brands or agencies won?t work with people who are Klout-challenged.

I responded to this with a bad humored string of profanities that would have embarrassed my mother and impressed my father, if they were in earshot.

The Klout Kraziness

I?m not sure whether I?m more upset with the sellers of services seizing Klout scores as indicators of worth, value-add, or influence, or with the BUYERS of services doing the same.

I don?t think much of Klout. I have several reasons for that, mostly based on the limitations of their methodology and the crudity of a 1-100 score in representing the vague concept of influence. As a game, it?s amusing.

But as a serious business tool, it?s horrifying. I?ve been trying to come up with an equivalent to the Klout score in the business world, but I haven?t been able to.

FICO score? No, that actually seems to have some predictive ability and a more transparent methodology.

Ad-value equivalency? No, that took a useless measure (how much space X would cost) and multiplied it by an arbitrary number (the mysterious ?multiplier?) which represented the credibility of editorial coverage. Closer, but not there.

Cost per contact acquired or cost per dollar raised? Nope, that?s clear and understandable. Click-through rate? Nope, easily calculated and clear.

Right now, Klout represents something that we all should be concerned about. A fun little statistic is one thing; a valid and credible measure of influence is another; but a fun little statistic that?s being treated like a business tool is akin to the correlation between storks and fertility rates.

Except nobody I know of is making policy decisions based on stork density…

About the author:?Bob LeDrew has been working in the words and ideas salt mines since the 1980s, when he edited audio with a razorblade. Since then, he’s been a writer, editor, public relations practitioner, and podcaster. Among other things. You can find him blogging at Translucid.ca?or on Twitter at @BobLeDrew.

A Lesson In Smelling Roses At The Speed Of Social Media

This is a guest post by Bruce Aristeo.

It was late, and after a long day I stretched out my arms, took a deep breath, and let out a huge sigh. My hands reached out and I began clicking, swiping, and typing as my shoulders curled inward around my chest as if humped over in pain.

My eyes were focusing and scanning the screen, my receptors acting as the light on a copy machine, pin-pointing each pixel and assigning the meaning to each symbol creating structure to what I was seeing.

My TweetDeck was doing its usual fly-by, email accounts were reaching out to their respective servers, Facebook Page was at a standstill while deals were secretly being made in the chat area, and my brain was on stimulus overload from subconsciously keeping track of it all.

No television or iTunes music to breakup the live feed chatter streaming into my mind, only this continued dull hum that my defense mechanism creates to keep me sane.

Breaking The Silence of Social Media

Damn, I forgot to check my Google+ account, I was interested in huddling with a new friend and forgot the time.

Exhausted, my graphic designs began to look as if tie-dye was making a comeback from the sixties, loud and no sharp edges, so it was time to take a short break anyway. I opened my Google+ account and clicked through the various areas looking for something to break the deafening silence of watching social media.

A post? Danny Brown? Wow, I forgot he was in one of my circles. Even visiting Danny?s blog on occasion didn?t break the armor piercing rounds of my focus.

You?d think that reading a great story would stop the world, if only for a moment, but each story only enforced the realization of how much time was passing; the visits became fewer as the weeks slid by. My visit to Danny?s articles were long over due, so I stopped to read this post, a chance to smell the roses ?so to speak.

A Musical Rose Garden

Huh! Nothing to read, only this posting of a video and a small blip, ?Loving this version of ?Livin’ on a Prayer” from Desmond Child, the guy that co-wrote it with Bon Jovi. Very soulful.”

Okay, I know the song; I grew up in Philly and live in New Jersey. Keep in mind that Social Media was still racing, running, streaming and posting with one eye on the accounts and the other on Danny?s post. I know, ?not exactly the full attention I should be giving another human, let alone the artistic expression embedded with a ?play? button.

I clicked the play button and the music began, ?slowly, ?a familiarity to the original yet different. My mind stopped to synchronize my recollection of the original version to this new version. Matching beat, tempo, breaks in the lyrics, but I?m analyzing and still not really free to enjoy the music.

The Shift in Reality

Visually, I broke from the video 30 seconds in, scanning other posts.

Something changed, a shift ?not what I was looking at, but how I was looking.?I was reading and not scanning posts, each one in fact. The music slowed down all my inputs.

Vision, hearing, movement, and thought were as if warped by Star Trek?s ?Q? and the Space Time Continuum. I guess I just dated myself?

I began thinking about the speed at which social media moves, and I correlated it with my studies in child psychology.

It?s interesting that my mind and reactions slowed to the tempo of the music.

Reading the posts became something that happened without intention. It was as if walking through a garden, not intending to smell the roses, but they were there and I happen to think of smelling them.

Stimulation: 10 Second Countdown

Studying child psychology was enjoyable because there were answers to that which gave reason to rhyme.

One such study described how television shows, such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company were delivering a 10 second lesson, meaning the child watching would learn something new every 10 seconds. That philosophy gave rise to the theory that children are being conditioned with over stimulation, thus causing attention spans to decrease.

Being a teacher (K-12), I can attest to how much teachers have to add into lesson plans to maintain student attention.

Listen + Communicate = Intimacy

Now, back to us adults. What are we doing to ourselves by over stimulating our senses with the speed of social media? Are we destroying our ability to sit and listen to another Being by conditioning ourselves with communication void of intimacy?

Our children find text messaging each other while in the same room, sometimes next to each other, is more appropriate than speaking.

Intimacy, the bedrock of communication and the factor dividing us from other animals, is not something transmitted through text, email, Tweets, or Huddles. Intimacy is offered from within each of us, as a means to authentically connect and touch one another with the intention of personal growth.

Some might say that intimacy was part of my social media experience. This is true, but was it Danny?s intention to deliver his personal experience in the link? Only he could answer what his intention was, but my experience came from within. I was only reminded of that place of slowing down, ?my personal rose garden.

Giving Thanks and Slowing Down

My engagement with Danny, I couldn?t thank him enough for being in the right place at the right time. Although my message of thanks to Danny was brief, I could not verbalize the shift that occurred within me. Danny?s post reminded me of slowing down, taking a breath, and truly seeing and being in the moment.

Of course you hear ?Stop and smell the roses? everyday, but do you ever feel it? I did?

As I part from this experience in social media, and I walk away from the roses, I will always keep that particular garden in mind.

The one I walked through when I was exhausted, and the feeling I experienced when stopping to smell the roses…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liSc1FMnjB8[/youtube]

About the author: Bruce Aristeo?is an artist, entrepreneur, and a lecturer/teacher of mathematics and psychology. In the spirit of North American Indians, he is a?Magician and?co-creates the world around him. You can read more from Bruce at AB2BC.Net, or connect with him on Google+?and?Facebook.

image: Adventures in Librarianship

Serve Yourself. Ain?t Nobody Gonna Do For You

This is a guest post by Marjorie Clayman.

A few years back, Yoko Ono released a comprehensive anthology of tapes that John Lennon had left behind. It?s a treasure trove of songs, some that you would know right away and others that he hadn?t yet gotten finished.

One of the latter is a song with the blog title as the chorus. It is, of course, acerbic and hilarious, as one might expect from John Lennon.

This song popped into my head the other day as I was thinking about the world of social media.

I am finding more and more that social media is like the ocean, and it has tides that can carry you out or bring you back in.

These tides can be ways of doing things (or not doing things), ways of thinking about people, ways of presenting yourself, and just about everything else. You meet a person who knows a person who?s connected to a person and they?re all of a like mind, so you float in with them. Then you meet other people and they pull you in a different direction.

Pretty soon, if you?re not careful, you can actually lose your footing and just become a piece of driftwood in this restless sea.

The sad fact of the matter, as you discover as you start treading water here in the online world, is that most people have some sort of agenda, and their ability to influence you towards that agenda is what makes social media extremely powerful.

Maybe a person wants you to think poorly of another person because they are competitive with that person. Maybe someone else wants you to avoid certain things because, really, they?re worried you?d be better than them.

You never really know the full story. You never know when the sea floor will randomly drop, pulling you under.

That?s why you need to follow John Lennon?s advice, online and offline.

It?s easy, very easy, to fall in with a crowd. It?s how we gain acceptance. It?s how we feel part of a group, or to use the oft-used online term, ?tribe.? Thinking for yourself or remaining unaffiliated can be really exhausting. There are so many decisions to make on a daily basis. There is so much content to sift through, so many viewpoints to evaluate.

But you have to serve yourself.

Nobody else is going to gear your towards things that will always 100% be for your own good. You have to achieve yourself, too, because ain?t nobody gonna do for you. You can talk to people, you can befriend people, and you can listen to everybody. But don?t let yourself become that piece of driftwood.

Serve yourself. Ain?t nobody gonna do for you.

Truer words were never spoken.

About the author:?Marjorie Clayman works for her family-owned agency,?Clayman Advertising, Inc., where she represents the third generation! Margie is the resident blogger at?MargieClayman.com, and can be found on Twitter at?@MargieClayman.?

Stop Kidding Yourself, You’re VERY Replaceable

This is a guest post by Marcus Sheridan.

I?m going to sound like the most conceited jerk in the world for a few sentences here?.but bear with me.

Over the past few years I?ve probably sold more swimming pools than any single person in the country. My company, which happens to be one of the country?s top fiberglass pool installers, has done quite well during this time period and I?ve been the driving force at the kitchen table, helping hundreds of families choose our services over many competitors in the process. To put it simply, I?m really, really good at the skill called selling?

And I?m also incredibly replaceable.

Inflated Values

That?s right, replaceable. I?m not nearly as valuable as many folks think I am to my company. In fact, I know there are people out there, if put in the right position and given the right tools, that can do just as well if not better than I have over these past few years.

For those of you that don?t know my history, when I?m not passionately writing about all things business, marketing, and personal development on The Sales Lion?I also happen to own a pool company, River Pools and Spas, which was started 10 years ago by me and my two great business partners.

Like any company selling luxury items in a wild economy, these past 10 years have been one peak and valley after another, but for the past few I have known that my time was soon coming to an end. Although I enjoyed talking to families and assisting them in the process of creating memories in their backyard through the pool ownership experience, I knew being a ?pool guy? wasn?t my ultimate calling.

As I talked to a few people in the industry about my desires to move on, the comments were almost always the same: ?Marcus, you?re really the face of your company, and you?re the guy that sells everything, there?s no way you could just leave.?

And although I?d like to think (as we all would) that my importance and worth to the company is as great as these some of these folks would have me believe, the reality is that they?re simply stuck in a paradigm that most businesses and business owners fall in?that employees, especially the owners, are irreplaceable.

Replace Yourself

Fact is, most business owners are too involved in the day-to-day operations of their companies anyway. As Michael Gerber famously said?They?re too busy working in their business to work on their business.

Such has been the case for me as well. I?ve been so busy selling that it has impeded my ability not only to work ?on? the business, but also reach out into the areas of my life that I?m most passionate about and feel called to do.

This is exactly why I?ve replaced myself. I now have commissioned sales persons that have taken my place, and the results thus far have been tremendous. Simply put, they?re better than I was. They?re more driven, more motivated, and take the time to care for each prospect as they should?otherwise, they don?t get paid.

In the past, with so much on my plate, I simply wasn?t able to be the best I could be, and therefore, although the sales numbers may have looked great on the outside, I knew there was room for improvement on the inside.

That?s the thing about being successful in business. We?ve got to be willing to step away. We can?t always have our arms wrapped around every facet of the company. Eventually, if we truly want the ?freedom? that entrepreneurship is supposed to bring, we?ve got to lean on others.

So that?s what I?m now doing. My business partners and I essentially ?oversee? the company but we?re no longer in backyards digging holes or sitting at kitchen tables trying to make a sale. From now on, I?ll spend about 10 hours a week working on my company?s inbound marketing and the rest of my time will be pursuing the goals of the next phase of my life.

The Fire Returns

And if I may be completely frank, I?ve never been so excited and invigorated as I am right now. My smile is unrelenting. I only wish I had learned to lean on others in the past and not allowed myself to overrate my overall importance to the success of the company.

So that?s the challenge folks. Are you replaceable? Chances are, at least in some areas, the answer is ?yes?. And if it is, get with it. It?s time you started owning your business instead of it owning you. And as you do this you will once again start to create, imagine, and dream big?instead of being caught up in the minutia of day to day.

Can it be done? Sure it can. Now the only question is?.. Will you?

Your Thoughts

Why is it so hard for business owners to replace themselves? Also, are you spending more time working ‘in’ your business or ‘on’ your business? Why?

I’m a guy that loves to converse, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and comments below.

About the author:?Marcus Sheridan?is the author of The Sales Lion, offering sage advice?on business, marketing, blogging, and life success principles. You can also?connect with him on Twitter at @TheSalesLion and on?Google+.

image: OFU

Bloggers Do It With Feeling

This is a guest post by Nancy Davis.

How many times have you stumbled across a blog and felt that something is missing? They have great content. They even have a really cool photo to draw your eye in. The text is large enough to read easily. The blogger kindly responds to your comment, yet you never go back.

Why?

I hate to tell you this ? you leave me cold. I read your post with excited eyes, but you don’t make me feel a thing. Challenge me. Make me think. Make me feel something. Even if I get angry, I will come back if you make your point well. If you change my mind about an issue, I will be a fan for life.

Writing with feeling can be a really tall order ? do it right and you will have fans for life. Do it wrong and risk confusing your reader at best ? or at worst pissing them off. It looks easy to write with feeling, but looks can be deceiving.

How do you blog with feeling?

My best blog posts have been written with tears in my eyes or my blood boiling. If I want someone to see what I see, I need to tell a story. A good post should tell a story, plain and simple. Tell me why I should care. Tell me why I should feel. Give me a good story and I will be hooked. A good post really is just a story, a very short story. I try to think about what the point of my post will be and write from that perspective.

Great storytellers can make you feel anything they want ? they can make you laugh or cry, but most of all they make you relate.

Why are some posts universal? There are themes everyone relates to on one level or another. Everyone has had their heart broken at least once. Everyone feels fear, even if they hate to admit it. Those of us who are parents have had overwhelming feeling of love for our children that we know there is nothing we would not do for them.

That is how I do it. How do you blog with feeling?

About the author: Nancy Davis is a marketer from New Jersey. She’s also a mom who happens to write pretty well about life and people, and she loves to talk. You can read more from Nancy on her blog, or connect with her on Twitter at @NancyD68.

image: rjg329