Who Are The 10 Most Influential Twitter Users In The World [Study] The geeks in the labs are donning white coats and poking and probing the social networks with powerful servers and custom software to see how the human lab rats in the global social media labyrinth are reacting to certain stimuli. The discoveries are quite enlightening and can assist us in understanding what we need to do to increase our influence. How Joe Fernandez Started Klout How do you know you're ready to start a company? The rational, prudent answer is obvious: You start the moment you've got adequate funding, an enthusiastic team behind you, and an idea everyone agrees is brilliant. Only problem is, the rational, prudent answer is wrong. If you wait for all that, you will never launch anything. I was reminded of that fact a few months back when I interviewed Joe Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Klout. Here's how a recent Wired story describes Klout: Much as Google’s search engine attempts to rank the relevance of every web page, Klout is on a mission to rank the influence of every person online. The article goes on to quote a Klout executive predicting that people with formidable Klout scores "will soon board planes earlier, get free access to VIP airport lounges, stay in better hotel rooms, and receive deep discounts from retail stores and flash-sale outlets. Fernandez had started two data companies before, one in health care and another in real estate.
jeffbullas I was on my road bike on the weekend dressed in my bright cycling Lycra, helmet and riding gear. I had just crossed over the Harbor on the cycleway and as I came down the incline I noticed a group of children playing near the exit. As I dismounted one of the young girls said to me with a child’s spontaneous grin and a sparkle in her eyes “That must be fun” ..I replied … “It certainly is”. Fun can be many things to many people and one of the stories about social media this week is about the fun meister comedian Conan O’Brien and how he is using online and offline marketing to create awareness about his return to late night television on November 8 to entertain, tease and torment his audience. One of the other stories that raised an eyebrow was that mums and dads are posting photos of their babies on Facebook before they are even born! Here are the 5 posts on social media that caught my attention this week. 1. 4. 10 Ways to Rock Your Facebook Campaign 5. 194inShare
Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words, Part 1 Full Episode - ABC News Specials Experts differ on Klout's clout Popular social media "influence" firm Klout, took some knocks this week from folks angry about its changes. An early social media application used to influence people. The San Francisco-based firm produces a "Klout Score", from 1 to 100, indicating the (you guessed it) clout of folks across the social media talk-o-verse of Twitter, Facebook and sundry settings for our current era of computer-assisted solipsism. "The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action," says the firm. But due to a tweak this week in the formula the firm uses to calculate its scores, some folks saw their numbers drop 10 to 20 points in a widely-lamented leap. "The problem is that Klout's new scoring method is neither more accurate nor more transparent," said Brand&Capture's John McTigue, in a commentary critical of the change. Well who cares? So, we asked experts who have published on the topic, to comment on whether Klout really had any clout. A: What kind of decisions?
Where Is Yahoo Headed? Its Product Chief Has a Clue [INTERVIEW] Yahoo Chief Product Officer Blake Irving says that he's not interested in the vacant Yahoo CEO job, but is instead focused on a big pipeline of mobile products and beating Nielsen at its own game. In an interview with Mashable, the charismatic Yahoo executive claims he's not vying to replace Carol Bartz, who was unceremoniously bounced from the company in September. "No. I'm a great product guy," Irving emphatically responded when asked whether he'd make a good CEO for Yahoo. Irving admits that the turmoil with Yahoo's leadership has made it tough to recruit talent, though he says new recruits are convinced once they meet with the team and see the products they're working on. However, Irving claims the turmoil hasn't affected the company's product pipeline. "We all know what we're trying to build here," Irving said. Irving showed excitement about IntoNow for iPad, another product that Yahoo released Wednesday. This information opens up a huge opportunity for brands.
Conference Speaker Interview: Joe Fernandez Joe Fernandez will be one of the speakers at our upcoming PSFK CONFERENCE SAN FRANCISCO on October 6. Joe is the founder and CEO of Klout, a platform that measures online influence and the impact users have on their friends and followers. Fascinated by the way individuals could instantly broadcast questions, opinions, and ideas to their trusted network, Joe started Klout in 2008 in an effort to help businesses understand this individual user impact by providing context around who a person effects and what topics they are particularly influential in. Who or what is the most recent person/entity you’ve followed on Twitter? @49ers. What is your favorite app? I am addicted to uber and Zaarly. Show us the last photo you took with your phone? RIP Tupac and Biggie What’s the last song/album you bought on iTunes? Kanye and Jay-Z – Watch the Throne Take a picture of your desk area, or wherever you do most of your thinking/your work. This is why I can’t work from home. What’s next for Klout? Thanks, Joe!
Twitter's New Timeline Changes Appear For Some (PICTURES) Twitter is apparently testing some big changes to the site. Certain users have noticed convenient new features that expand the timeline on Twitter.com, though this test appears to be limited to only a few users. One of the new features, as described by Patrick Bisch of Pinglio, is an "Open" button, that you can click to expand a particular tweet to display replies, making the tweet exchange appear more like a threaded conversation. As reported by CNET, Bisch has created a video showcasing some of the new features he and other users have discovered. The last major Twitter update was announced in 2010, when the design we know today was launched. Social media presents opportunities, dilemmas for retailers It's early on Black Friday and retailers are overrun with holiday bargain hunters when a shopper starts tweeting to friends that a store has quickly sold out of the big flat-screen televisions advertised on sale. If the national chain that owns the store is following mentions of the business on Twitter, it has choices: Does it rush more TVs to the store? Provide update tweets on which locations are sold out and which have sets in stock? The hypothetical scenario represents a slice of the opportunities and dilemmas facing retailers as the social media phenomenon changes the shape of consumer behavior. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook not only give businesses a chance to promote their wares and build brand loyalty, they also offer an opportunity to respond directly to shoppers and pick up on consumer opinions and trends. While these are early days for retailers and social media, big companies are jumping in, in some cases with highly developed strategies. © 2011 CNBC.com
Facebook Actions Can Turn Life Into A Game by Dennis Yu on Oct 28, 2011 By now you’ve noticed major changes to user profiles and apps on Facebook — and some new terms: timelinesauto-published actions But what hasn’t been discussed is the implications to your business and why Facebook tied these two together the way they did. While the new profile timeline, scheduled to be rolled out gradually over the next two months, is certainly sexy, the key to it is the emphasis on actions your friends have taken. Let’s take a closer look at these actions and help figure out the future of how brands will interact with them on Facebook. Actions On The Facebook Timeline The “read, watch, listen” applications conveniently allow consumers to keep up with what their friends are doing, what’s key is that a few brands have created new OpenGraph apps focused on actions. Facebook built some actions in. Actions Shared With Friends Note that the friend activity is shown before the content, since anything read by your friends is now TWICE as interesting to you.
What the klout Infographic: Social media usage across Asia - Shanghaiist This neat little infographic from Endelman Digital maps out the social media habits of internet users all across Asia. The data used comes from PC-based internet users only, leaving out the very substantial chunk of Asians staring at the internet through their phone or at an internet cafe. But anyway, it's pretty to look at, and gives a nice clear peak at user habits, as well as Facebook's slow and steady world domination. (Penn Olson points out that Facebook actually does surpass Wretch in Taiwan, with 58% online penetration.) It's clear that video viewing eats up the lion's share of Asia's time online, while blogging falls a close second in most countries. But more importantly, how do you measure how much time Chinese users eat up reading online novels?