Vosters' Stuff and Things

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Tumblr Feed

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Pinterest Feed

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Which makes it easier to discover/consume content? Which will spark more interaction? Which will you spend more time on? Which makes it easier to get more followers? Pinterest functionality may be limited to photos and videos, but it’s still going to give Tumblr a run for its money at this rate.

Tumblr…step your game up.

Klout, the self-proclaimed “Standard of Influence”, has plenty of haters these days. It’s been called “the internet equivalent of herpes” and accused of trying to “turn the entire internet into a high school cafeteria”. Beyond the press, I’ve seen similar sentiments expressed by co-workers who say “you actually look at that crap?” Well…yes, I do look at it. I feel it brings great utility is monitoring and improving my personal web presence. I’m a huge supporter of what they’re doing, and think that others will support them as well if they start delivering content with their data.

Klout recently added an “Understand Klout” link to its nav bar educate the masses on how it can help.

“We provide you with insights to help you better understand your own influence:

• Do others trust your opinions online?
• What topics are you the most influential on?
• How do you compare with your friends?”

This rhetoric, although persuasive, won’t be enough to change consumer perception. Klout needs to quit talking and start walking by providing personalized content to users on what they can do to improve their online influence. This task would be quite a shift for a big data company, but it’s definitely feasible.

The Idea

Imagine if every time you logged onto Klout, it told you not only how your score had changed, but gave you 5 tips/articles that could help you improve your score. This content would be personalized based on your score, klout style, topics, and influencers, and most importantly it would be actionable. Klout would then be a self-help resource as opposed to a high school cafeteria.

What should the content include?

1. Amplification Tips: Help users optimize their amplification efforts by telling them what content is being retweeted/liked most, what time is best for amplification (maybe use Socialyzer for this), and how they can improve specifically on different social networks.
2. Influencer Education: Provide content about each users’ following, what they’re interested in, and how a user can influence them. For me, I assume my following @mikevosters is tech-focused, but maybe there’s another angle I’m not seeing. This information would be huge for users to help them understand their following, so they can provide content best suited to please them. Also, location data would be huge - potentially a partnership with Tweepsmap to show where all your followers are located.
3. Network Introductions: Tell users how and why they should use other social networks. While the tech savvy understand, the every day user might not see a reason for them to use instagram, foursquare or others. If Klout provided information on the benefits of each and gave insight into how the users’ following was using these networks, it would create mutual value as the user would learn how to influence their network with a new channel and Klout would get users to connect more accounts.

How might they get all this content?

1. Partner with Mashable: Mashable already has a lot of the content they’d need, and they’re writing staff is more than capable of producing more in no time. Also, the cross-branding effort makes sense.
2. Contract Contently: Contently is a General Assembly-based startup that connect writers with brands who need content creation. I’ve never used them before, but if they can deliver, it would make sense.
3. Do It Internally: No one knows Klout better than they do, so why not hire someone internally to produce the content. Klout will already be handling the personalization/data aspect of this, so why not go the extra step - which would no doubt make for a great PR campaign.

In short, I think content can go a long way in changing consumer perception for Klout and truly help them become a sustainable business.

Oh, and one more thing Klout. Change your default invite tweet. It’s the epitome of a high school cafeteria. “@whatever, your Klout Score is 10 (I’m a 51). Check out your @klout profile today!”

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To learn more and join Klout, click here.