Klout - What it is, How Brands Can Use It & How to Improve Your Score

Find Out NowHow To Increase Your Klout Scores

August 25, 2011 | noon EST

COPYRIGHT ICROSSING / PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL 2

Find Out Now agenda

• What is Klout

• #KloutWar2011

• What We Learned

• Case Study: Audi of America

• Takeaways

• Questions?


What is Klout?


What is Klout?• A social application that

measures the influence you have on your social networks

• Takes into consideration your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social accounts

• The higher your Klout score, the more influential you are

• “The Standard for Influence”


How is your Klout score calculated?• The Klout score is in

essence "PeopleRank" and we take data from social networks in order to score users on the basis of:– How many people you

influence (True Reach)– How much you influence

those people (Amplification Score)

– How influential those people are (Network Score)

• The end result is your Klout Score — a measure of your influence on a scale of 1 to 100.


Klout topics• In addition to score,

Klout lists key topics they think you are influential about

• You can give +K to verify someone is influential about a given topic

• Useful for finding people or brands with similar interests


Klout style

• Klout also identifies your social media style

• Examples include a broadcaster, specialist, socializer and dabbler

• A visual chart compares you to others styles


Klout perks

• Users can unlock certain “Perks” if they qualify

• To qualify, must have a high Klout score & be influential on a topic specified by the Perk owner

• Perks range from coupons to free stuff

• Limited availability of Perks before they are sold out


Applications and alternatives to Klout?

• Klout is no replacement for true social media monitoring

• Can be used to quickly get a sense of relative popularity & influence, but actual number nothing to obsess over

• Other quick & easy social metrics?– Twitter Follower Count– Facebook Page Fan Count– Compete.com traffic (blogs & such)– Google+ circles– Tumblr subscribers– Flickr contacts


Possible uses for brands

• Customer Service – make sure to take care of the influencers• Klout Perks• Blogger & Social Media Outreach• Find Brand Advocates and RT & Share their content• Competitor Analysis

I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal

(on Klout)


#KloutWar2011


What is #KloutWar2011

• @NickRoshon created a list on Klout measuring the Klout Score of those of us in the NSO department

• Terms of the contest• May 27th – June 30th • “Winners” would be the person with the highest Klout Score and the

person with the greatest improvement• As others decided to join #KloutWar2011, those with the lowest score

would be kicked off the list


The competitors


We started getting competitive

• Tweeting with greater frequency• Posting “like bait” on Facebook• No @mentions of other competitors in early tweets• Not including the leaders in tweets• Trash talk


Testing new strategies• Retweeting quality content• Connecting as many social accounts as possible• Deleting past Facebook posts that hadn’t received ‘likes’ or

comments• Scheduling tweets while away from your computer• Using a newer account to see a greater increase• Tweet “spam bait” to get additional unique mentions and replies


A little mystery and intrigue

• David Strader shot up on the score board faster than anyone else on the list

• Achieved 2nd place overall within 2 weeks, despite

• @straderade wasn’t tweeting nearly as often as the rest of us

• His stats weren’t astronomically better than anyone else’s either

• He would also skip tweeting and updating Facebook for days, and his Klout score would go up… how?


• 2 days before the end of #KloutWar2011, Collin Cornwell was in last place

• By tweeting persistently, engaging authoritative accounts, linking his Facebook account and LinkedIn account and being an overall sneak, Collin managed to claim 2nd place in the final, and improved his Klout Score by 30 points in a month

• Way to go! But, not good enough to win…

A come-from-behind “almost” win


And the winner is…

• Dana Notman, with an overall score of 61

• Jayson Akers, for the greatest Klout Score increase over 30 days (+33)



Honorable mentions


• Interaction is key• Klout puts a lot of emphasis on Facebook interaction• Klout decides what you’re influential about based on your posted and

shared content• The more linked accounts you have, the greater your Klout score

What we learned


Case Study: Audi of America


Case Study: Audi

• Audi has worked with Klout through adding Perks & Facebook Page integration

• Rated “Most Engaged” fans on Facebook, beating Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and every other automaker, too.

• 228 “Likes” out of every 100,000 fans

• #ProgressIs promotion• Cross-promotion with Super

Bowl TV Ad• Used for launch of Audi A8


Audi case study – Klout perks

• Key Influencers get a weekend test drive & group experience if they have high Klout scores in relevant topics

• Part of “Klout Perks” program

• Used to help launch the new 2011 Audi A8

• Focused to SF area


Audi case study – Facebook integration

• Through Facebook you can qualify for special offers & perks by connecting via Facebook

• First brand to integrate Klout into their Facebook Page

• Perk was somewhat lame but got a lot of press anyway

• Celebrated 2011 Le Mans victory


Klout + Facebook App

• Brands and agencies can incorporate a user’s Klout scores to dynamically change the content/interaction with the Involver platform applications.

• The Klout app is available as a free application and with more features enabled as a part of Involver’s Professional, Business, and Enterprise offerings

• How the Klout App works:– A brand deploys the Klout App and configures it settings– Once fan interacts with the application the brand is able to show different

content based on users’ Klout scores. Like a “fan-gate” on steroids.– Example: When a user above a certain threshhold interacts, they get access

to special, unreleased content (a new trailer, product, coupon, etc.). That person is more likely to share it, and it’s more likely to catch on.

+


Audi case study – Klout page

• High Score of 74• Thought Leader style• Topics include

automobile, audi s5, engineering, cars

• Connected Accounts:– Twitter– Facebook– Foursquare– YouTube


Audi case study – #ProgressIs

• Audi created a Super Bowl Commercial featuring the hashtag #ProgressIs

• Audi used Klout to find 1,100 influencers to help promote the hashtag

• Gave out 200 gift packages (travel mug + flashlight) to top Klout users that tweet #ProgressIs hashtag

• The best #ProgressIs tweet received a trip to Sonoma to test drive Audis at Infineon Raceway, and a $25,000 donation was made to the charity of the winner’s choice (@jetsetbrunette)


The perk page - #ProgressIs


Audi case study – the results?

• "Today the equation to measure that doesn't exist" (referring to ROI on the campaign) says Doug Clark, Audi of America's general manager for social media and customer engagement

• Clark concedes that, so far, he doesn't have any numbers to prove that all this engagement has resulted in, you know, selling more cars.

• For Audi, Facebook and Twitter "are places where we know tech-minded consumers are active, where they're seeking to engage with the brand," Clark says.

• "But can I say that a fan is more likely to buy an Audi? No.“• Still, Audi has “most engaged” fans on Facebook, have a very

active Twitter presence, and are posting sales records each month here in the US


Audi takeaways

• Use Klout to find key influencers• Being “early adopter” of Klout got Audi a lot of press• Well rounded social media strategy helps brands connect no

matter what the medium (Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, etc)

• Klout is just one of many ways to identify influencers, but might be the quickest/easiest/most formal way to do so

• Integration of blogging platforms (Posterous, Tumblr, WordPress) into Klout could be a way to find influential bloggers in the future

• A good metric to monitor & compare against your competitors, but nothing to obsess over


Other global brands are using Klout, too…


How can you increase your Klout score?


How can you increase your Klout score?

• Position yourself as an authority• Connect with other authoritative people• Join in conversations happening around you• Encourage interaction with your content• Share often• Share well• Connect as many networks as possible


Questions?

Dana NotmanNatural Search [email protected]

thank you.

Nick RoshonNatural Search [email protected]

Technology

Klout - What it is, How Brands Can Use It & How to Improve Your Score