I’ve been in a blogging slumber for months, but some recent experiences with Klout and Twitalyzer, combined with Veronica Heringer’s own good post about Klout, caused me to put my fingers to the keyboard.
Veronica expanded on her thoughts regarding, well, how much clout one should give to Klout’s numbers as a measure of our individual influence on Twitter.
Here’s my take on it: services like Klout and Twitalyzer can be a good accessory in helping marketers to identify potential influencers in a specific realm, but at the end of the day, there’s no substitute for common sense and actually reading an account’s Twitter stream to detect if that person’s (or company’s) updates are valuable.
Why do I say this? Because, yesterday I noticed that a specific Twitter user who, in my books is a spammer (with the best of intentions), ranked very well on Klout. Other than this individual’s malpractices on Twitter, I don’t have anything against this person. What makes it even more difficult to swallow it is that we have met before. I enjoyed our interactions in more than one occasion, and would have sincerely thought that he/she would think twice before sending me a Direct Message that was clearly promotional, about a topic that I have no interest in. More than once. That same direct message was also sent to other people in my circle.
That Twitter stream – once personal and engaging – is now littered with links upon links that regurgitate headlines, in a fashion that is only employed by less-than-reputable accounts.
I’m not giving out any names because everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves.
As I was saying… as a marketer, I might think that this account is a key influencer in my geographical area were I to solely rely on Twitalyzer and Klout. But, as my parents used to tell me as a kid, “Diga-me com quem andas, que eu te direi quem és”. Meaning, “Tell me who you walk with, and I’ll tell you who you are”. Regardless of their score, I’d sure as hell not want to associate myself, nor my clients, with that Twitter user.
In a couple of hours, I’ll be presenting at Third Tuesday on Social Media Metrics. It’s a huge honour, given that greats like Tod Maffin and Julien Smith have also talked at past events.
If you’ve arrived here after my talk, I’d love to know:
What’s the one social media metrics question that you’d like to have answered, but were afraid to ask?
I’ll go through your questions and will chose a few to answer to.
Thanks for popping by – and for joining me at Third Tuesday!
So, as it turned out, three days ago I received a question, submitted to me via my page on FormSpring.me. Cole Roberts, a very talented Vancouver photographer with whom I had the pleasure of working while at Magnify Digital, did the honours as the first “human” (meaning, not FormSpring’s own robot) visitor to ask me a question. Below is a copy, and my answer:
Q: How can I get my blog to be #1 on Google search for ‘Vancouver Photo Blog’ : )
A: Hello, Cole – great to see you here, and thanks for being my first (human) visitor to pose a question.
So… how do you get your blog to be #1 on Google search for “Vancouver Photo Blog”?
As you know, this is not an SEO question that can be answered in a short paragraph, but let’s see what I can do to at least help you know a tad more today, than you did… say… 5 minutes ago.
First, the bad news: it looks as though you have your work cut out for you. A quick search on Google.ca shows that there are 17,300,000 search listings for that same term.
The good news: I’ve been following what you’ve been doing on your blog, and you’re on the right track. That contest you ran last year (http://ow.ly/Ywj3), which had the final draw broadcast on video, is an example of content that you can continue to do, to differentiate yourself from your competitors. One idea would be for you to keep on creating engaging, educational, informative, unique content on video, and post it to YouTube. According to data from October ‘08 (eons ago), YouTube, at that time, had more than 65 million unique users.
This was my first for-ray into live blogging. As such, forgive me in advance for typos, grammar errors or otherwise discombobulated sentences. The text below details Jason Billingsley presentation for the International Internet Marketing Association, covering the topic: 42 ways to sell more online.
Jason Billingsley is the founder of Flip Retail, co-founder of Elastic Path and the blog Get Elastic. He co-founded Elastic Path Software in November 2000 and held the position of VP Marketing where he helped the company attract over 200 customers. Global brands such as Google, Aeroplan, Nike, Time Inc., Avis, Samsonite, United Health Group, Telus, Garmin, and Sony. Most impressively, this was done with no outside equity financing.
Flip Retail’s mandate is to consult with online retailers on how to execute e-commerce best practices.
Ean Jackson is introducing Jason.
Don’t miss the events coming up in February, March and April. For more information, visit the IIMA website.
Jason got into e-commerce when he was 17 years, and his girlfriend asked him to developed a web page. From then on, he started Elastic Path. Right now, 140 people work at Elastic Path – one of the biggest success stories in the tech field in Vancouver. After 9 years, he retired from Elastic Path and is now a professional speaker and e-commerce coach.
Jason loves to travel and decided with his wife to go to a half-year cruise.
Jason is now talking and about to start presenting his presentation deck and the Elastic Path story.
Some of the clients in the Elastic Path roster right now are Virgin, Google, etc. For now, he’ll talk about e-Commerce.
LeWeb is taking place as we speak, and they have opened up many of their presentations to UStream. Today is the last day of the conference, and it’s been definitely worth staying up to watch some of it (remember – they’re in Central European Time).
For your viewing pleasure, here’s the embedded video stream. Obviously, this will not be up and running after the conference is finished.
So far, I’ve watched a roundtable discussion with Twitter, Facebook, Ning and MySpace, led by TechCrunch, a presentation by Twitter, a very funny presentation spoof by Yossi Vardi. And, right at this very moment, a presentation by Danah Boyd.
If you’re not familiar with UStream, it’s a great channel that allows you to stream live video while also enabling chat next to the video player. If you’re planning on live-streaming a conference or special event, it’s definitely a channel to consider.
One of the appealing things that LeWeb is doing is broadcasting many of its mainstage discussions. Some people may argue that a conference such as this should not be open through live streaming, and that if you want to catch any of the action, you should pony up and pay for it. My take on this is that, if the content is good enough (which it’s been, in this case), people will watch the live online videos, and the content will serve as a magnet to:
Raise awareness of the conference
Through the numbers of recorded viewers, help prove to future sponsors that it’s worth for them to invest in the event
Some of the things that they’re doing right is integrating Facebook and Twitter stream on their homepage. For many, this may seem like an obvious thing to do, but it’s great to see that they haven’t forgotten about something so fundamental.
It’d be even better if their UStream video was available through their Facebook Page.
Another thing I’d to contemplate, if I were LeWeb, would be capturing people’s email address before they can view some (or all) of the live-streaming content. Then, I’d send updates on future conferences to those who have provided their emails. I know I’d consider this… an Internet conference in PARIS? Count me in! I’d work it into my vacation!
So, as it turned out, three days ago I received a question, submitted to me via 